The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to target-test players for performance-enhancing drugs at the World Cup in the West Indies starting this month.

"These target tests will be in addition to ICC's commitment to randomly test four players - two from each side - in 17 of the tournament's 51 matches," the sport's governing body said in a statement yesterday.

The decision to target-test is a direct fall-out from the drug controversy involving Pakistani fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif during last year's Champions Trophy in India.

Both Shoaib and Asif were ruled out of the World Cup yesterday because of injuries.

The target-tests are to take place any time from today, the start of the tournament's support period before the warm-up matches. The World Cup runs from March 13 to April 28.

Shoaib and Asif were found to have taken the banned substance nandrolone following a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) test last year, but a PCB appeals panel cleared them of a doping offence and lifted their bans in December.

"We want to make absolutely sure that all players who take part in the World Cup do so on the basis that they are free from banned substances," ICC's chief executive officer Malcolm Speed said in a statement.

The ICC said it was unable to intercede in the lifting of the PCB ban on the two players as its own anti-doping code - which is World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-compliant - only governs ICC events.

WADA is seeking to challenge the overturning of the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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