Doug Bracewell serves one-month ban after testing positive for cocaine

WELLINGTON (Agencies): Doug Bracewell, the New Zealand seamer, has been suspended for one month by the country’s Sports Tribunal for “the presence and use” of cocaine and its metabolite benzoylecgonine. Bracewell “was provisionally suspended without opposition” on April 11 this year following an “adverse analytical finding” from an in-competition test on January 13 at the Super Smash match between Wellington Firebirds and Central Stags in Wellington, the tribunal said in a statement. The statement added that Bracewell had “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”. The tribunal imposed an “ineligibility period of one month”, which was backdated to commence on April 11, which was the date of the provisional suspension order

Following that, expert evidence on the matter was filed by both the Commission and Bracewell, and a hearing before the tribunal was scheduled for December 11 and 12. But last week, on November 11, “counsel filed a joint memorandum in which the Commission indicated that, having considered all the evidence filed in this proceeding, on balance, it accepted Mr Bracewell’s position”. As a result, it was “agreed that the appropriate sanction was a period of ineligibility of three months, which would be reduced to one month, as Mr Bracewell had satisfactorily completed a Substance of Abuse treatment programme approved by the Commission”. The tribunal subsequently imposed an “ineligibility period of one month”, which was backdated to commence on April 11, which was the date of the provisional suspension order. Bracewell, 34, has played 28 Tests (74 wickets), 21 ODIs (26 wickets) and 20 T20Is (20 wickets) after making his international debut in October 2011. He last played for New Zealand in a Test match against Sri Lanka in Wellington in March 2023. A Central Districts player right through his domestic career, Bracewell recently opted out of a contract with the club to become a freelancer. He is next expected to be in action at the Abu Dhabi T10 league, where he is a part of New York Strikers, and then at the SA20 early next year as part of Joburg Super Kings.