The PCB has asked the IPL to revise the time-period of the ban imposed on Mohammad Asif, requesting that it end in July this year as opposed to September.
Asif was banned for one year earlier this week by an IPL drugs tribunal for testing positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid, during the IPL last year. The ban has been back-dated to when the IPL imposed a suspension on him, on September 21, 2009.
The Pakistan board, however, has asked for the ban to begin from the day the IPL announced Asif had tested positive - July 14, 2008., which would mean the ban is lifted on July 14 this year.
"We have sent a letter officially to the IPL," Ijaz Butt, PCB chairman, told Cricinfo. "The ban runs till September 21 this year for the moment, but we have said in the letter that it should be back-dated to the date on which his result was announced."
IPL officials, however, say it is not in their hands but with the ICC. "As far as the IPL is concerned his ban stays till September," an official told Cricinfo. "Even the ICC has agreed to that. If he wants any review he will need to speak to the ICC."
Should the request be accepted, it will give Asif an outside chance of being available for Pakistan's tour of Sri Lanka, slated for July this year. Pakistan have struggled to field their first-choice pace attack over the last two years with injuries and disciplinary issues continuing to plague the likes of Asif, Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar.
Asif remains suspended by the PCB pending the end of the ban but Butt said recently that he was keen to induct Asif back into the fold as soon as the ban ends, fitness permitting.
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