Lahore: Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar broke his silence on Thursday over his doping ban, saying he had taken nutritional supplements and no banned substances.

 The 31-year-old fast bowler was banned from all international and national cricket for two years on November 1 after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone.

"I maintain I have done nothing wrong," Akhtar said.

 "Don’t stop me from playing cricket, my whole career is at stake," he said.
He said he told a tribunal set up by Pakistan Cricket Board that they should ban the supplements which are available on the market before stopping him from playing.
Akhtar’s new-ball partner Mohammad Asif was banned for one year after the tribunal found them guilty of failing a dope test.

The pair has lodged an appeal which will be heard by a committee comprising of former judge Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim, former Test player Haseeb Ahsan and doping expert doctor Danish Zaheer.
Akhtar said he hoped that the committee would overturn the ban on him because the nutritional supplements and herbal medicines he took were not banned.

"The nutritional supplements like Promax-50 and Nitron-5 are not banned even in World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list and I don’t know if they have produced nandrolone in my body," said Akhtar, who only returned to international cricket in late August. He underwent twin knee operations in February this year and missed Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka and Tests series in England due to recurrence of an ankle injury.

"They should have considered my medical condition, I have gone through dozens of operations and have taken hundreds of medicines to heal up injuries. I am not a doctor and don’t know much about medicines. There are certain herbal medicines which are not banned and I have been taking them. Greg Rusedski was cleared even though his levels of nandrolone were higher than mine," said Akhtar, referring to British tennis player who was cleared after testing positive for nandrolone in 2004.

"The doping expert doctor Abbas Rizvi in his statement before the tribunal contended that the type of food and supplements I have been taking can easily take the nandrolone substances to higher levels," he said.
Akhtar said he attended just one doping seminar conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board, in 2002.

"The seminar merely told us how to give urine samples, how to close the bottle carrying samples and it did not tell anything about what we have to take and what we can’t. Since 2002 a lot of new nutritional supplements have been introduced and are available in the market," Akhtar said.
He is also embroiled in controversy over allegedly slapping coach Bob Woolmer during the recently concluded Champions Trophy in India. Indian television channels interviewed Pakistan’s liaison officer Colonel Anil Kaul who said Akhtar misbehaved with Woolmer in team bus before he was sent back on doping charges.

"I am already down with doping case. This is a rubbish and baseless story, I can never think of misbehaving with my elders and this is an attempt to gain cheap publicity,”"said Akhtar.

Akhtar appealed to his fans to pray for his appeal against the ban to be successful.

"I am receiving hundreds of calls and people sympathise with me. My request to them is to pray for me that appeal is heard properly and I am cleared to play cricket again," he said.