Drugs hearing adjourned for Asif

The future for Mohammad Asif should be resolved in November

The hearing for Pakistan Mohammad Asif's doping case before an Indian Premier League drugs panel has been adjourned until 11 November.

The 25-year-old fast bowler tested positive for banned drug nandrolone during the IPL semi-finals in May.

A test on his second sample, carried out under World Anti-doping Agency conditions in Switzerland, also produced an adverse finding.

Asif, who has played 11 Tests, faces a ban of two years if found guilty.

Asif's lawyer Shahid Karim argued on Saturday that the IPL tribunal did not have the authority to hear the case.

The IPL drugs panel consists of former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, lawyer Shirish Gupte and doctor Ravi Bapat.

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If Asif is suspended in November's hearing, it would also keep him out of international cricket with the Pakistan Cricket Board already saying it is prepared to endorse the ban.

One major plank of Asif's defence will be that the quantity of nandrolone present in the two samples varied - the second providing a concentration of 5.4 nanograms per millilitre of urine compared with 6.2 nanograms in the first.

In 2006, he and fellow Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar were found to have taken nandrolone after failing internal PCB drug tests.

The pair were banned for one and two years respectively, before the ruling was overturned on appeal.