Cricket Australia Directors re-affirm zero tolerance to doping in cricket

Cricket Australia Directors have re-affirmed their objective of having a zero tolerance approach to doping in cricket.

The Board's strong view is that there is no place for doping in cricket and this had been the motivation for developing an Anti-Doping Policy.

We have reviewed and amended this policy a number of times in recent years to try to ensure it achieves our objectives.

The Board has again reviewed its views at our regular bi-monthly meeting in Melbourne this weekend. In the light of legal opinions from a number of sources, we have reviewed our interpretation of that part of our policy which says that suspended players should not receive assistance.

Our previous view had been that attending training, particularly to give help to members of the team, was consistent with both the wording and intention of our policy.

However, on consideration of argument that attending is a form of assistance, we have reviewed and agreed we should take a broad rather than narrow interpretation of the wording of the policy.

As such, Directors have resolved that players suspended under the anti-doping policy should not attend training with the national, state or territory or affiliated club teams, and should not train with any Cricket Australia-contracted players.

In the case of Shane Warne, we note that he has already volunteered to not attend training. But the Directors believed there was still a principle that needed addressing - hence the resolution made at the Board meeting.

This is not an issue about an individual player. This is an issue about getting the ideal right, and the ideal is for drug-free cricket.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia is continuing its previously announced review of its Anti-Doping Policy to assess aligning our code as closely as possible with the World Anti Doping Authority anti-doping approach.

We will continue to discuss these issues with the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Cricketers' Association.