MUMBAI: India batsman Sachin Tendulkar could miss the four-Test series against Australia starting in Bangalore on Oct. 9 after injury ruled him out of a premier domestic competition match next week.
Tendulkar suffered an elbow injury during the third Test in Sri Lanka last month, which forced him out of the subsequent one-day series.
He had declared himself available for the Irani Trophy match, seen as a selection game for the Australia series, but the physiotherapist at the National Cricket Academy advised him another week’s rest to recuperate.
“He is not playing the Irani Trophy as he has been advised a week of rehabilitation,” Ratnakar Shetty, the board’s chief administrative officer, told reporters yesterday.
Tendulkar missed the first two Tests of Australia’s last tour four years ago due to tennis elbow.
West Indies batsman Marshall
tests positive
In New Delhi, West Indies opening batsman Xavier Marshall has tested positive for a banned substance, a senior cricket board official told website www.cricinfo.com.
Jamaican Marshall and Tonito Willett from Leeward Islands tested positive last month at a camp to pick the side to face England in the Stanford Twenty20 winner-take-all $20 million match on Nov. 1, the report said.
Donald Peters, chief executive of the West Indies board (WICB), told Cricinfo any action would be taken after receiving legal advice. He did not say what substance was involved.
“They (attorneys) are looking into the matter and will advise us the course of action,” Peters said. “WICB has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and the matter could come up to the disciplinary committee. We are looking at a time frame of two weeks.” The 22-year-old Marshall has played four Tests and 18 One-Day Internationals.
Asif’s lawyer upset over
doping hearing delays
In Karachi, the lawyer for suspended Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif has asked for his appeal against a positive doping Test to be set for the earliest possible date.
Asif tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone during a domestic Twenty20 competition in India and was immediately suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board when the positive test was announced in July. He denied taking any banned substances.
His ‘B’ sample also tested positive.
Asif’s lawyer Shahid Karim said last month when the results for the ‘B’ sample were announced they would appeal, though admitted yesterday he was frustrated in the delay in getting a hearing.
“This long delay in giving a date is strange,” Karim said.
“Because initially they were pushing for a quick hearing. Now they are saying ‘wait we will get back (to you)’.”
