KARACHI, Aug 28: Disgraced Pakistani pacer Mohammad Asif on Thursday sought postponement of an earlier date (Aug 30) for him to appear before the drugs tribunal of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a preliminary hearing on his dope flunk.

Asif’s lawyer, Shahid Karim said his client sought a mid-September date as the pacer would not be able to reach India by Saturday as certain formalities are yet to be completed.

”We have been given a tentative date by IPL. They want us to come to India on August 30 but I have replied to them that it wasn’t possible,” Karim said. “There are certain formalities to be completed before appearing in front of the tribunal in India. They should fix the date by middle of September,” Karim said without explaining the formalities.

Asif had asked for a hearing from the IPL tribunal after his ‘A’ and ‘B samples, despite coming positive for steroid nandrolone, produced different results in terms of amount of the banned substance.

The pacer’s ‘B’ sample had also tested positive for nandrolone in a WADA-accredited laboratory in Switzerland but the nanogram traces in his urine sample was 5.4, while in the test conducted by IPL, the nanogram traces came at 6.2.

Karim expressed confidence that Asif would be able to prove his innocence when the IPL tribunal hearing is held. “The report (from Switzerland) has just come in and we are analyzing it, Dr. Graham is going through the report.”

”There was a major difference in the two results. There was a deviation which has certain concoctions which we can’t divulge now, but will do in due course of time,” he said.

He also hinted that the IPL might not have followed some regulations while conducting the dope tests.

Meanwhile, Asif’s fate will be decided by the new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman after considering the recommendations made by the fact-finding committee.

With Dr Ashraf resigning immediately after former President Pervez Musharraf made his exit earlier this month, the sports ministry is now planning to either appoint an ad-hoc committee to run cricket affairs or to get the president to directly appoint a new chairman.

Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer of the PCB said that the new Chairman will be authorised to take a decision on Asif as the fact finding committee members have done their work and submitted their recommendation for further action.

”It is now up to the new chairman or head of the board to decide on our recommendations. Till then this issue is in cold storage and as it is we have already suspended Asif from playing any cricket because of his positive dope test in the Indian Premier League,” said Naghmi, who also heads the fact finding committee.

Sources have said that the three-member fact finding committee has recommended disciplinary action against Asif for violating players code of conduct as the authorities did find a small quantity of some banned substance in the test.

Asif spent 19-days in detention in early June after he was detained at the Dubai airport while returning from India. He was later released without any charges but authorities did find some contraband item on him.

—Agencies