Karachi: Former captain Javed Miandad has slammed the PCB for “messing up” the doping controversy surrounding Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, and said that the PCB “should have faced the truth” instead of taking on the ICC and the Wada on the issue.

Miandad said the Board was misleading the people by insisting the pace duo were dropped from the World Cup squad on fitness grounds.

“The Board has handled the issue the wrong way from the start. They should have realised no player was indispensable and done what was morally right when they knew the truth,” Miandad said.

“By trying to take on the ICC and the World Anti-Doping Agency on this issue, they only messed up things. The outcome is that the team has come to know that it is going to play without its two main players at the last moment.

“The country’s image is very important and above everything else. The Board should have faced the truth from the start. They have done nothing but only dent the team’s morale.”

The former captain said the Board’s insistence that Shoaib and Asif had gone to London for medical opinion on their knee and elbow injuries was questionable.

“I say this because even if they were injured why didn’t the Board have them take the dope tests in Lahore when they came to the camp. Why were they allowed to skip the tests and this raises a lot of questions.” (PTI)