TUFFERS_HEARING_25OCT1997

25 October 1997

ECB tread middle path on Tufnell

Christopher Martin-Jenkins reports

THE Welsh barrister, Gerard Elias QC, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board's disciplinary committee, steered a careful middle course between the lenient and the Draconian when he suspended an 18-month ban from cricket for England's newly restored left-arm spinner, Phil Tufnell, but fined him £1,000 at Lord's yesterday, plus £250 towards the cost of a three-hour hearing.

Tufnell, accompanied by the Middlesex captain, Mark Ramprakash, survived the worst-case penalty of missing the Caribbean tour.

Tufnell was accused of smoking cannabis in a restaurant in Christchurch towards the end of last winter's tour of New Zealand - the manager, John Barclay, investigated the charge and dismissed it - and he has been in trouble off the field before. Given the simple explanation that he forgot to supply a urine sample, it would, therefore, have been easy to dismiss this as a case of 'give a dog a bad name' but the five-man panel hearing the case did not do so.

Elias, Michael Melluish (MCC), John Higson (Gloucestershire), Alan Wadey (Sussex) and Kent all-rounder Matthew Fleming, representing the Professional Cricketers' Association, were obliged to punish him for failing to take a dope control test, despite written notification from the Sports Council, but after hearing the evidence they were "not satisfied that he had deliberately acted in a way calculated to avoid taking the test".

There may or may not be significance in the wording of the press statement that they were "not satisfied that" he had avoided the test deliberately, as opposed to "satisfied that he had not". Just in case, however, they have in effect put him on probation for 18 months.

Tufnell faces a random test at some point of the ECB's choosing before the end of this year and again at some time during 1998. The hope will be that this will encourage the more responsible approach he has generally had towards his cricketing life in recent years. He bowled superbly on the turning pitch at the Oval to take his 11 wickets in the sixth Test against Australia in August and much is expected of him in the West Indies.

This latest setback came as a result of the visit of two Sports Council officials to Chelmsford on the first morning of the Essex v Middlesex game on Sept 18. The Essex captain, Paul Prichard, pulled out number 10, Tufnell's place in the batting order, for a random test, along with that of Paul Weekes.

Tufnell, who had an eye infection caused by ointment applied to a wasp sting suffered the previous day, signed a form acknowledging that he should supply a sample, but, apparently affected by the sore eye, he drove home without doing so. The eye was bad enough for him to miss the next day's play.

Commenting on the decision, the ECB's chief executive, Tim Lamb, said: "We've got to tighten up the test to make sure it doesn't happen again. It is essential that the game maintains a clean image."

Asked if Tufnell's England selection had any bearing on the panel's ruling, Lamb said: "The penalties are severe enough that they are able to protect the spirit of the game, which is far more important than any England selection. We judge each case on its merit and that is more important than selection for the national side."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)