Cricket-West Indies batsman Campbell gets 4-year anti-doping ban

KINGSTON : West Indies batsman John Campbell has been slapped with a four-year ban for violation of an anti-doping rule, according to a Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) decision seen by Reuters.

Friday's 18-page decision by a three-member independent panel followed a charge of evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.

Campbell played 20 test matches, six one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals for the West Indies, before JADCO accused him of refusing to provide a blood sample at his home in Kingston in April.

"The ... panel is persuaded to a comfortable degree of satisfaction that the athlete committed an anti-doping rule violation, namely breach of JADCO rule 2.3. ...," the decision read in part.

"The panel does not find, on the evidence presented, that the athlete's anti-doping violation was not intentional.

"In the circumstances of this case the athlete is ineligible for a period of 4 years," it added, citing the applicable JADCO rule 10.3.1, with the ban backdated to start from notification of the violation on May 10 this year.