West Indies Batter John Campbell Banned For 4 Years For Violation Of An Anti-doping Rule

The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, or JADCO, has banned West Indies batter John Campbell from playing cricket for four years for violating an anti-doping rule.

The 18-page decision charged the accused with evading, refusing or failing to submit a sample collection related to an anti-doping violation. The commission alleged that Campbell refused to provide a blood sample at his home in Kingston on suspicion of doping.

Doesn’t Find Evidence That Anti-doping Violation Wasn’t Intentional – The Panel

The panel imposed a four-year ban on Campbell after he failed to provide any evidence in his defence, concluding that his anti-doping violation was intentional.

“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 panel does not find, on the evidence presented, that the athlete’s anti-doping violation was not intentional,” 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.

John Campbell is not the first player from the West Indies to be banned for doping violations. Star all-rounder Andre Russell was suspended for a year in 2017. Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan, Alex Hales, and Prithvi Shaw are also on the list of cricketers who have been suspended for a specified period of time due to doping violations.

John Campbell made his international debut for the West Indies in a Test match against England in 2019. The following month, he made his One-Day International (ODI) debut against the same opposition and his T20I debut on the same white-ball tour of England.

Campbell has represented the West Indies in 20 Test matches, scoring 888 runs with an average of 26.11, including three half-centuries. He scored 248 runs at an average of 49.60, including a century in One-day International (ODI) matches. The left-hander was known for his aggressive batting style in the top order, but this ban might hurt his chances to make it big in international cricket.

Also read: INDW vs PAKW: “We Want To Build Our Team For All Conditions” – Ramesh Powar After Defeat Against Pakistan