KEY POINTS:
Former England cricketer Chris Lewis has been charged with trying to smuggle 200,000 ($543,000) of liquid cocaine through Gatwick Airport.
Lewis, a fast bowler who played in 32 test matches and 53 one-day internationals for England, was arrested after 4kg of cocaine was allegedly found in fruit tins in his luggage, the UK Border Agency said.
Basketballer Chad Kirnon, 26, was also detained. The pair, both from North London, arrived together on a flight from the Caribbean island of St Lucia and were interrogated by Customs. Lewis was to appear at Crawley Magistrates' Court yesterday but was remanded in custody until December 17, when he will appear via video-link from Mid-Sussex Magistrates' Court.
Born in Guyana, Lewis played cricket for Nottinghamshire, Surrey and Leicestershire, and sporadically opened the bowling for England during the 1990s after making his test debut against New Zealand in 1990.
Capable of bowling at more than 145km/h with his high, fluid action, his mercurial talent came on to the radar of English selectors at the end of a two-decade period in which world cricket was dominated by legendary, tall West Indian fast bowlers.
Lewis' batting talent - he scored nine first-class hundreds in his career - led to his labouring for years under the banner of "the next Ian Botham".
He left professional cricket in 2000 with a hip injury, claiming to have been driven out of the game after alleging three England teammates had taken bribes to throw matches. The charges were never substantiated. Lewis became a marginalised figure on the county scene and retired at the age of 32.
- INDEPENDENT
