New Zealand cricketer Doug Bracewell gets anti-doping sanction for cocaine use

Auckland: New Zealand cricketer Doug Bracewell has been handed a one-month ban by the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand after testing positive for cocaine and its metabolite Benzoylecgonine (BZE) following a T20 match in January 2024.

 Bracewell was provisionally suspended without opposition on April 11, following an Adverse Analytical Finding from an in-competition test at the New Zealand Cricket Super Smash T20 match between the Wellington Firebirds and the Central Stags in Wellington on 13 January 2024.

“Bracewell tested positive for cocaine and its metabolite Benzoylecgonine (BZE) after a T20 match in January 2024. It was accepted that he had used the cocaine out of competition and for reasons unrelated to sport performance,” Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui said in a statement.

Bracewell admitted using cocaine but maintained that his use occurred out-of-competition, being prior to midnight on the day before the match, and that it was unrelated to sport performance.

The Sport Integrity Commission did not accept that and contended that the use must have occurred in-competition. Expert evidence on that issue was filed both by the Commission and Bracewell. IANS

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