ICC to adopt anti-doping code

The ICC is expected to adopt the World Anti-Doping Code at the next meeting of its 96 members in July and put it into force at next year's World Cup in the West Indies.

"We have a recommendation which will be discussed and that recommendation is for the ICC to adopt (the) doping code. I expect the member countries will adopt it and that will be (the) code we use," Malcom Speed, the ICC chief executive told Associated Press.

Doping scandals have been few in cricket. But a major one broke out in February 2003 when South Africa hosted the World Cup. Shane Warne, the Australian leg-spinner, tested positive for a prohibited diuretic and was banned for a year. A month later at Copenhagen several other sports bodies signed the World Anti-Doping Code but the ICC, despite the apprehensions the Warne incident raised, refused to endorse it.

The Australian board, in contrast, reacted with alacrity. It called for the introduction of an anti-doping code in cricket soon after the incident. "Cricket Australia (CA) was a world cricket pioneer when we proactively moved to introduce an anti-doping policy, modelled on the Australian Sports Commission and Olympic codes, into our sport here in Australia," James Sutherland, the CA chief executive said then.

Substances are banned under the Code, if they fall under any two heads - performance enhancement, health risk or violation of the `spirit of sport'. For a first serious offence, a sportsperson found guilty will be banned for two years and lifetime ban will be awarded for a repeated offence.