West Indies batter John Campbell handed four year ban, found guilty of violating anti doping rule

In a piece of major news from the Caribbean, West Indies opening batter John Campbell has been handed a four-year ban by Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) for violation of an anti-doping rule, according to sources in Jamaica. 

The ruling was made by an 18-page decision, which charged the accused with evading, refusing, or failing to submit the sample collection concerning his anti-doping violation. The commission accused Campbell of refusing to provide a blood sample at his home in Kingston after he was suspected of doping.

The panel handed Campbell a four-year ban after he failed to produce any evidence in his defense, finding his anti-doping violation intentional. The ban was backdated to start from notification of the violation on May 10 this year.

"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.

"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.

Campbell made a blistering start to his ODI career for the Windies

John Campbell, born and bred in Kingston, made his international debut in 2019, representing West Indies in a Test match against England. He made his limited-overs debut the following month against the same opposition, in fact, his T20I debut also came in the same white-ball tour of England.

The aggressive southpaw went on to feature in 20 Tests, scoring 888 runs with three half-centuries to his name. He had a more prolific outing in the 50-over format of the game as he registered 248 runs in just five innings at an impressive average of 49.60, with an explosive 179 off just 137 deliveries against Ireland. He was recently seen in action for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the first edition of The 6IXTY.