Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar broke his silence 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 domestic cricket for two years on November 1 after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone.

"I maintain I have done nothing wrong," Akhtar told AFP in an exclusive interview.

"Don't stop me from playing cricket, my whole career is at stake," the mercurial bowler, whose career has been dogged by controversy and injury, said.

He said he told a tribunal set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that supplements available on the market should be banned before he was stopped 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 have lodged appeals, which will be heard by a committee comprising 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 his ban 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 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 the Test series in England because of a 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 the British tennis player, who was cleared after testing positive for nandrolone in 2004."

He added: "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."

Akhtar said he attended just one doping seminar conducted by the PCB, 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.

The "Rawalpindi Express", as Akhtar is known, 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 was involved in the incident with Woolmer on the 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.

He said he could sue Kaul.

"I keep my rights reserved to take this man to the court over maligning my image. I have a lot of fans and friends in India who must have felt bad over the reports."

PCB director of operations Saleem Altaf said Thursday a complaint would be lodged with the International Cricket Council (ICC) against Kaul.

"The issue is not whether the allegations are true or not. The issue is Kaul has violated the strict secrecy code which is a must for all match and team officials at any time," Altaf said.

He said the PCB would demand Kaul be banned from any future assignments with the ICC.

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)