India on Tuesday suspended former international all-rounder Yusuf Pathan for five months for taking a banned stimulant.
The ban on the 35-year-old, who last represented India in 2012, was backdated so that it ends on January 14. The Board of Control for Cricket in India said the explosive batsman was routinely tested during domestic Twenty20 competition last year and a sample showed traces of Terbutaline. But the board said it was satisfied with Pathan’s explanation that the substance entered his body through medication while taking a cough syrup and “not as a performance-enhancing drug”.
