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ICC to institute doping policy
28/11/2003 11:27 - (SA)
Melbourne - The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Friday it hopes to have a worldwide doping policy in place for the Champion's Trophy tournament next September in England.
Chief executive Malcolm Speed said the body would meet soon with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), whose president Dick Pound criticised Cricket Australia earlier this year over the Shane Warne doping controversy.
"We are looking at a generic doping program that will go across the top of cricket," Speed said. "We are about to have meetings with Wada to look at adopting the Wada program, (but) there is some opposition within cricket to that."
Speed said the major issue was a mandatory two-year sentence for a first offence. Warne received a one-year ban in February when he tested positive to a banned diuretic.
Pound later criticised Cricket Australia for initially letting Warne train with Victorian and Australian teams during his suspension.
Bowing to pressure from the Australian government, Cricket Australia tightened the ban conditions in August, meaning Warne could only train in private during his suspension.
Speed hoped Wada would give the ICC some discretion in sentencing.
"If there are cheats out there who are using banned substances, yes we want to punish them," Speed said. "But if there are issues that fall below that level, we want the discretion to deal with it on a more issue-sensitive basis.
"We understand that Fifa (soccer's world governing body) has recently had those discussions and obtained that concession. It has been said by a number of people in doping agencies that cricket is seen to be a low-risk sport."
Speed said cricket was serious about anti-doping, but admitted the sport had "a long way to go" to properly address the issue.
- AP
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