Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar (left) and Mohammad Asif. - Reuters

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters)

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to take up the cases of Pakistani fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif with the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The two players were cleared of doping charges on Tuesday by a Pakistan board appeals tribunal.

WADA official Frederic Donze told a Pakistani newspaper that the appeals commission's decision appeared to be unreasonable and a violation of the international anti-doping code.

"We have decided to take up the matter with the ICC. My personal view is that the decision taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board panel is unreasonable," Donze was quoted as saying in The News yesterday.

Shoaib and Asif were banned for two years and one year respectively last month after a positive out-of-competition test for nandrolone but the appeals panel ruled they had not had sufficient warning that the supplements they were taking could be contaminated by the steroid.

The duo were the first cricketers to be banned for a doping offence since Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne was suspended for a year by Cricket Australia for taking a banned substance in 2003.