WADA's reaction came after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday dismissed an appeal against the overturning of a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ban on the two bowlers.

"The fight against doping will be severely hampered if the International Cricket Council and national governing bodies such as the PCB do not ensure that their anti-doping rules are able to avoid unsatisfactory decisions as the majority decision of the PCB Appeals Committee in this case," a WADA spokesman told AFP in an email.

New ball pair Akhtar and Asif tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in internal tests conducted by the PCB in October last year, and were banned for two years and one year respectively in November 2006.

However, a month later, both were controversially reinstated by a Pakistani appeals committee, prompting WADA to go to the CAS.

The CAS ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to deal with the matter and that the PCB does not provide a right of appeal to the international sports court.

The court said however that it had reached the conclusion "with some considerable regret" -- a sentiment echoed by WADA.

"We regret the absence of jurisdiction of CAS in this specific case, but note with satisfaction that the CAS panel considered the exoneration of the two cricketers by the PCB Appeals Committee as an unsatisfactory decision," the anti-doping body said.

The Pakistani bowlers had their bans overturned after they both said they took the substance unwittingly.

WADA however said the lifting of the ban was "inconsistent with a long and invariable line of CAS's decisions which hold that it is the athlete's duty to ensure that what he or she ingests does not contain a prohibited substance."

The organisation also called on the International Cricket Council to bring in anti-doping rules that allow all members and WADA to appeal against "what might be termed as rogue decisions."

"We are now looking forward to the full implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code by the ICC (which adopted the code in July 2006) and its national associations at the earliest, and to pursuing its cooperation with the ICC in the fight against doping in sport," it said.

PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf on Monday said the court's decision vindicated both Pakistani cricket authorities and the two bowlers, and said the PCB still has a zero tolerance policy on doping.

Any such cases in future will be dealt under the WADA code, he added.