Embattled Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif was on Wednesday handed a one-year ban by the Indian Premier League Drugs Tribunal for failing a dope test during the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 tournament last year.
After finding the 26-year-old fast bowler guilty of violating the anti-doping code, the IPL Drug Tribunal, chaired by legal expert Shirish Gupte, made the formal announcement on Wednesday though it arrived at the decision a day earlier.
Media reports, quoting sources, had already claimed that Asif would be banned.
Apart from Gupte, the tribunal also comprised former Vice Chancellor of MUHS, Ravi Bapat, and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar.
Asif, playing for Delhi Daredevils had tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone during the inaugural edition of the cash-rich event.
A statement from the IPL Drugs Tribunal said that the ban, which suspends the bowler from taking part in the second edition of the tournament starting April 10, is effective from September 22 last year.
"The year's ineligibility for Mohammad Asif's ban runs from as September 22, 2008 as that was the date when the IPL had imposed the suspension order, post which the cricketer has not been allowed to play any match," the statement said.
Asif, who has already been banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board, told the tribunal last month he unknowingly took the substance which was present in an eye drop that he was using for allergy.
The right-handed fast bowler has a series of run-ins with controversies and was detained at the Dubai airport for 19 days last June with 0.24 grams of opium in his possession when returning home after playing in the IPL.
