(BBC) English cricket bosses are planning to step up testing for recreational drugs following the death of Tom Maynard.
According to post-mortem examination evidence presented at an inquest, the Surrey batsman was high on cocaine and ecstasy when he was electrocuted before being hit by a train last June.
Speaking after a jury at Westminster Coroner’s Court returned a verdict of accidental death, coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox urged cricket and other sports to introduce hair testing to determine long-term drug habits.
The inquest heard that tests on hair samples indicated Maynard may have been a regular drug user up to three-and-a-half months before his death.
Professional Cricketers’ Association chief Angus Porter told BBC Sport: “More testing will improve our chances of helping players with a problem which is as much societal as it is sporting.”
On average, up to 200 tests are carried out each year as part of the England & Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) testing programme, which encompasses all registered professional county cricketers.
These almost always take place on match days and are only likely to detect the use of performance-enhancing substances.
Last season, one player – Somerset’s Pakistan spinner Abdur Rehman – tested positive for cannabis during an in-competition test and was handed a 12-week ban.
England international players are also tested as part of the International Cricket Council’s anti-doping programme, and none has yet tested positive.
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The ECB and PCA have recently agreed to develop an out-of-competition testing programme to encompass recreational drugs, and both bodies are holding talks aimed at introducing more out-of-competition testing of players’ hair samples, which can reveal whether they have used recreational drugs in the previous three months.
This would follow the example of the Football Association and Rugby Football Union, which have both introduced measures that go beyond the stipulations of the Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) code by testing for recreational drugs away from match days.
Any player found to have taken a recreational drug would be offered counselling and support in the first instance, with suspensions only applied to repeat offenders, Porter explained.
“We have a comprehensive programme of testing in and out of competition for performance-enhancing drugs – very much in line with the Wada code – testing in competition and also testing for recreational drugs,” he added.
“What we are now in discussions with the ECB on is whether we need to extend the testing for recreational drugs to out of competition and I think we both think that is a good idea.
“We are working on plans for that and investigating the practicality, following sports such as rugby and football which have done similar things.
“We all think that the use of recreational drugs out of competition needs to be thought of very differently from performance-enhancing.