CRICKET, like so many sports, has often believed that it was immune from the scourge of doping. Now it must fear that its reputation has been tarnished.

Although several players have been found to have taken recreational drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are the first international players allegedly to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Technically, the players have suffered only adverse findings because the B samples have yet to be analysed and a positive test can only be declared after this has again revealed the presence of nandrolone, the anabolic steroid.

It should also be remembered that the B specimen of Marion Jones, the American athlete, recently failed to confirm the finding of erythropoietin (EPO) in the A test and she was exonerated. However, such a difference is rare and the two Pakistan players may have to explain how nandrolone came to be found in their urine.

Cricket, keen to ensure the sport’s reputation for fair play, introduced drug-testing in September 2002, when Malcolm Gray, the president of the ICC, said: “We have got to ensure the game’s name does not get smeared by any violations.” Within five months, Shane Warne was found to have taken a diuretic and was banned for a year.

The Australia spin bowler claimed that he had taken the diuretic, which can be used to mask the use of steroids, in an attempt to lose weight and improve his appearance.

Sportsmen and women may be tempted to use anabolic steroids, not only to gain muscle weight and become stronger but also to recover from severe training sessions or help in the recuperation from injuries, as allegedly has been the case with the Pakistan bowlers. These hormone drugs aid in the utilisation of protein, which, when combined with exercise, can make individuals fitter.

Cricket may be a game in which technical excellence is the prime factor for success, but there is no doubt that the fitter you are, the better you will perform.

Nandrolone has been well-known for more than 30 years, but it became particularly notorious in the late 1990s, when a large number of sportsmen and women in a variety of activities returned positive findings. These included Linford Christie and Dougie Walker, the British sprinters, who denied knowingly ingesting the drug but were banned for two years by the International Association of Athletic Federations.

Subsequent research in Britain found that some food and protein supplements were contaminated with precursors of nandrolone, which may help to explain the number of positive tests. If the B test confirms the A test, the Pakistan bowlers may claim that they unknowingly took the drug in a supplement. However, this will not be an acceptable defence for the ICC, which follows the code and policy of the World Anti-Doping Agency. That states unequivocally that an individual is responsible for what he or she consumes.

In the only other case involving hormone drugs in cricket, Duncan Spencer, the Western Australia and Kent fast bowler, was found to have taken nandrolone in 2001. He claimed that a doctor had given him the drug for chronic back pain. He was banned for 18 months.