Warne's return reignites drugs debate

Shane Warne's return from the sporting wilderness has reignited the debate about drugs-testing in cricket. Although Australia's federal government is a strong supporter of the controversial World Anti-Doping Agency drug code, several of the country's cricketers are opposed to its adoption, and are preparing to speak out against it.

According to a report in Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper, Tim May, the joint chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers Association and the Australian Cricketers Association, is expected to put the cricketers' case to the ICC at a meeting in Bangladesh this week. "Along with most, if not all, professional team sports," said May, "we have concerns about the application of WADA to our sport."

Not only is WADA's list of banned drugs considered too broad, but it is considered more applicable to individual events such as the Olympics, where success and failure is judged purely in terms of seconds or centimetres, and not by extraneous factors such as hand-eye co-ordination, or in Warne's case, the ability to spin the ball prodigious amounts.

Cricket's officials would prefer the code to be more sport-specific. With a degree of flexibility, it would be possible to draw up a banned list for different sports, rather than imposing a blanket ban on any athletic who transgresses in any way. Under the current rules, a player cannot be exonerated even they prove exceptional circumstances. WADA's code also includes a ban on recreational drugs, which do not enhance performance, leading to fears that players might have their drinks spiked by team-mates and opponents.

Rod Kemp, the Australian Sports Minister, is on the board of WADA and was instrumental in its rise to prominence over the past two years. But even Kemp was unable to influence Cricket Australia last year, when they handed down a one-year ban for Warne's use of a banned diuretic. It was a ruling that contravened their own drug code, which advocates a minimum sentence of two years, and the decision provoked scorn from WADA's president, Dick Pound. Such tensions are likely to flare if the cricketers push this issue any further.