Players back CA on out-of-competition dope testing

Sydney, June 20 (UNI) Australian cricketers have welcomed Cricket Australia's (CA) decision to issue a tougher testing regime for recreational drugs after the Federal Government pressurised CA to begin out-of-competition testing for illegal drugs.

The country's leading player managers Neil Maxwell, who looks after Brett Lee, Mike Hussey, Jason Gillespie and Shane Watson, and Sam Halvorsen, who has Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin on his books, said their players would back any measures in regard to dope testing.

''None of my players would have an issue with it,'' Maxwell told 'The Herald Sun'.

Similar reaction came from Halvorsen side who said, ''I am certain they wouldn't.'' All-rounder Shane Watson said he would be happy to be tested as the step would help the gane to be ''clean in every sense''.

''You have got to welcome that with open arms, that's the way society and sport is going and it would be good to be at the forefront of that as well.

''We are full-time athletes and we are training all year round.

I think that's the way it might progress,'' he said.

Currently, players are tested for illicit drugs only on the match days as per the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) code.

According to media reports, Australian cricketers will soon be quizzed about their personal drug use and preferences for a testing and enforcement regime.

There is also support among the CA Board memebers for the Government's argument that the AFL model, under which a player is not identified or punished until after a third positive test, is too soft.

As part of negotiations with CA, the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) has written to all members asking them to complete a survey about their attitudes to recreational drugs.

Australian players, including those overseas in English county cricket, will be asked if they use drugs or have witnessed illicit drug use during their time in the sport, whether they support out-of-competition testing and what the consequences for a positive test should be. All state-level players, as well as elite female and under-19 cricketers will be included in the survey.

As CA and the ACA ponder the best solution, Sutherland said the AFL had been unfairly maligned for its three strikes policy, particularly in the wake of the Ben Cousins affair.

UNI