Cricket Australia to review doping bans

Cricket Australia (CA) will review its codes and policies for anti-doping breaches after a decision by an independent arbitrator according to James Sutherland, chief executive of CA. The arbitrator found that CA's current policy did not specifically allow players suspended for anti-doping breaches to be banned from all cricket.

The arbitrator also ruled that Shane Warne should be allowed to play in charity and testimonial matches during his 12-month drug ban. CA and the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) had disagreed over a provision of the agreement between the two parties which allowed the former to prevent suspended players from playing in charity or testimonial matches.

Both the CA and ACA sought a ruling, and in the opinion of independent arbiter and barrister Peter O'Callaghan the provision did not give CA the right to suspend players from all cricket.

Sutherland said CA believed it was inconsistent and detrimental to the spirit of the game that suspended players were not suspended from all cricket. "We had believed we had this right under our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ACA but accept the umpire's ruling that this is not the case. We now need to review our codes to determine whether it is appropriate to make changes to reflect what we believe the spirit of cricket demands."

The review is likely to take place over the next few months.