The straight dope?

Cricket finds its way into another doping scandal. I'm surprised that no Dick Pound quotes have made the rounds yet. Good 'ol Dick, he would have known what to have said about this. Akhtar, for the record, has been suspected of being a user for a long time (Samiuddin says as much in his several pieces at the link above and casual fans have commented on how Akhtar's physical appearance is very 'roidish'). Still, I'm not going to put it past the PCB to find some way to get out of this jam as well. They are past champions at this (only the PCB could have managed to get out with such minimal damage from match-fixing, spectator assault, ball-tampering, test-match forfeits and too many other cases of player misbehavior to mention here). So, like, wait for the "B" samples, check out the three-man tribunal, or whatever else you want, but don't expect any great "shocks". Akhtar and Asif should be back in greens before long. Inshallah.