Former Australian batter Chris Lynn has been handed a one-month suspension by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Cricket Regulator after testing positive for cocaine during the T20 Blast finals day on July 18.
Lynn, who represented Northamptonshire in the competition, accepted the sanction after admitting to using cocaine on July 15 and 16. However, he maintained that the drug use took place outside competition and had no connection to his sporting performance.
According to a report released by the Cricket Regulator, Lynn’s urine sample was sent to a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory in France, where it returned an adverse analytical finding for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.
Cocaine is classified as a stimulant under the 2026 WADA Prohibited List and is banned during competition. It is also categorised as a substance of abuse under the anti-doping regulations.
The Cricket Regulator notified Lynn of the positive test on July 31 and informed him that he had been provisionally suspended. On August 20, the batter responded to the charge, admitting cocaine use while providing evidence that the substance had been consumed outside competition.
On September 23, the regulator formally charged Lynn but accepted his explanation that the violation was unrelated to competition. One of the two initial charges against him was subsequently dropped because the cocaine concentration in his sample was below the minimum threshold required under WADA rules.
The regulator initially sought a three-month suspension. However, the penalty was reduced to one month after Lynn provided confirmation that he had completed a substance abuse treatment programme.
His suspension was deemed to have been served on August 30, one month after the beginning of his provisional suspension.
