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Cricket World Cup 2007>
Aussies resent Akhtar, Asif selection for World Cup
28th Feb 2007  23.21 IST
By Agencies  


Matthew Lawrence Hayden and Andrew Symonds have spelled out Australia's resentment and lambasted Pakistan for selecting dope-tainted pacers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif for the Caribbean World Cup.

Hayden said the International Cricket Council needed to be firm in such cases and described the whole matter as "not fair" while Symonds hinted at the resentment within the Australian camp, which left for the Caribbean yesterday.

"It's a laughable point among our players because we've worked very hard to be clean athletes. It's ludicrous and it's not fair," said Hayden of the duo, who tested positive last year to the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

Symonds said: "I think everyone knows what our opinion on it is. We've been told to be very tightlipped. But put it this way: imagine if it was one of us. Imagine if it was Matty Hayden or someone else. Imagine what the world would say. I'll leave it at that."

Hayden also said it was the ICC's failure.

"We're all under the same annexe, and that is the ICC. We're all tested equally. So if someone's tested positive for a steroid, then they have to have the penalties of the game. Anything short of that is a failure from our governing body, simple as that.

"The questions should be: what is our governing body doing about this? And what is WADA doing about it? What are the standards and who's imposing them? And who's making decisions based on that?"

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