Cricket should fall into line with other sport on drugs

What has world cricket got to hide when it comes to drug-testing its players?

The requirement is simple. In order to weed out (pardon the pun) the cheats who attempt to create a chemical advantage over their opponents, cricket has to take exactly the same attitude to the drug problem as it did to the gambling crisis of a few years ago.

The embarrassment of that situation resulted in a near immediate reaction from the game's authorities to the problem. Legislation within the game was enacted almost immediately.

Is it going to take another crisis to cause an equally effective reaction in the relation to drug use?

There have been several examples of drug infringements in recent cricket history with occurrences in Australia, England and New Zealand having been identified. So cricket is not immune to drug use that has occurred in other sports. The game is reflective of the society it is played in, and the benefits of playing are far greater than they have been at any other time in their history. The perfect setting for abuse.

So why not introduce a policing element? If there is nothing to hide, there should not be a problem.

To hear Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland state that there are differences between amateur and professional sports that need to be taken into consideration in Cricket Australia's policy review is unfortunate.

It is as if the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is concerned only with amateur sports. It may also be that the issue of contracts and players' associations clogs the system. But to claim a buzz word of the moment, there should be zero tolerance on the matter.

It would be hard to describe Olympic basketball, cycling, track and field athletics, tennis and any number of other sports as amateur - they involve some of the highest profile professional sports participants in the world. And drug-testing is now part of the Tour de France after it endured a potential catastrophe a few years ago. No-one is immune and nor should cricket be.

As long as international cricket clings to the notion that it is somehow different to other sports, the game is going to leave itself exposed to the prospect of abuse by players attempting to cheat the system.

Cricket Australia might like to align itself with other professional sports in the world, but the sports teams of American professional sport are all privately-owned. Even the stadia they play in are privately-owned. However, in Commonwealth countries, especially those in which cricket is played, there is a government involvement in most of the sports in one shape or another.

That behoves an across-the-board policy to be put in place for all sports. That way there can be no mistakes, no excuses and no exceptions to infringements and penalties.

After a long silence on the matter, the Australian Government through its sports minister Senator Rod Kemp made its position clear on the floor of the Australian Parliament. Cricket Australia would be asked to make sure that Shane Warne did not get to practice at club, state or international level until his 12-month ban was completed.

Wisden CricInfo has sought a response to similar queries from Kemp, but nothing has been received for more than a fortnight.

Cricket cannot expect, in the modern-world, that it can somehow escape the desire to rid sport of the drug problem. As the leading summer sport in most of the countries in which it is played, and the national sport in several of them, it has a responsibility to face up to the issue.

It is the same at world level. The International Cricket Council should be leading the way in the matter.

Is it going to take the equivalent of the match-fixing saga to shake the ICC out of its torpor, and subsequent hand wringing before they are moved to do something to fall into line? More importantly, could cricket survive the damage of such a blow? As it stands, the matter is a disaster waiting to happen.