Islamabad (AP): The ICC suspended Pakistan leg spinner Yasir Shah on Sunday for three months after he tested positive for a banned substance.
Shah was tested during the one-day international series between Pakistan and England in the United Arab Emirates in November. The ICC then provisionally suspended him in December when the result showed that his sample contained the banned substance chlortalidone.
The ICC said in a statement Shas has "admitted the violation and three-month suspension has been imposed." The ban starts from Dec. 27, 2015, the day Shah was provisionally suspended. It means Shah will not be eligible for selection for next month's World Twenty20 in India.
Shah told the ICC he had mistakenly taken his wife's blood pressure medication that was identical in appearance to his own but which contained the prohibited substance.
"I should have taken extra precautions to ensure that my blood pressure medication was stored separately from my wife's medication so that there was no possibility of my wife's medication being mistaken for my own," Shah said. "I accept the consequences imposed upon me."
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The ICC accepted that Shah had inadvertently taken the medicine and had no intention of enhancing his sporting performance or to mask the use of another performance-enhancing substance.
"I assure all fans and followers of the Pakistan cricket team that I have never taken a performance enhancing substance nor have I ever had the intent of masking any such substance," Shah said.
"I have always been careful to check my medication with doctors and medical support staff to ensure it does not contain any substance on the prohibited list."
ICC general manager Geoff Allardice said the ban on Shah reinforced the game's governing body's zero tolerance approach to doping.
"(The ban) reminds all international cricketers that they remain personally responsible for ensuring that anything they eat, drink or put into their bodies does not result in an anti-doping rule violation," he said.
