Pakistan bowler Yasir Shah has been issued with a three-month ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after mistakenly taking his wife’s blood pressure medication instead of his own. The ICC accepted the cricketer’s explanation that a positive test for chlorthalidone had been caused by taking his wife’s blood pressure tablets. Shah declared the tablet on his doping control form when undergoing a urine test during the 13 November 2015 one-day international against England in Abu Dhabi.

The ICC accepted that Shah had mistakenly taken his wife’s blood pressure medication to treat his own high-blood pressure. He had been prescribed Tenormin and his wife Tenoret, which contains chlortalidone, a diuretic or masking agent prohibited under section S5 of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2015 Prohibited List. This was replaced by the 2016 Prohibited List on 1 January. Shah’s family have a history of high-blood pressure – his mother and father also take medication to combat it.

‘Mr Shah admitted the violation and a three-month suspension has been imposed, backdated to 27 December 2015, the day when he was provisionally suspended’, read an ICC media release. ‘Mr Shah will, therefore, be eligible to return to cricket on 27 March 2016’. The full reasoned decision of 7 February is available below.