There is a 'high risk' dilemma threatening international cricket

Royal Challengers Bangalore's player Virat Kohli, right, speaks with teammate Aniket Choudhary during their Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match. Photo / AP.

An anti-doping expert has lifted the lid on a huge problem facing international cricket after two worrying cases arose in the game's shortest format.

The evolution of T20 cricket has given the sport a huge shot in the arm, bringing a new generation of fans into the fold with record ticket sales and coverage - but according to experts, the pressure of faster-paced gameplay could soon bring a drug issue of gigantic proportions into the game.

A huge doping case descended on the cricketing world when West Indian T20 specialist and Big Bash star Andre Russell was handed a ban for a breach in the rules.

The 28-year-old all-rounder failed to file his whereabouts on three separate occasions in 2015, an offence equal to failing a drug test under Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.

Russell was banned from playing professional cricket both internationally and domestically until late January 2018, forcing his IPL team the Kolkata Knight Riders to hastily sign New Zealand's Colin de Grandhomme as a replacement.

Then, in April this year, Afghanistan T20 powerhouse Mohammad Shahzad tested positive for a banned substance (clenbuterol) before being suspended.

The wicketkeeper-batsman is yet to receive the full outcome of his disciplinary hearing.

While cases like Russell's and Shahzad's are currently rare in international cricket, an expert warns they could be the first of many breaches to confront T20.

Richard Ings, the former head of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, slammed cricket's "inconsistent" testing procedures in an interview with the New York Times.

"Cricket is a high-risk sport for performance-enhancing drug use," he said. "I would rate the risk of doping in cricket as high and the quality of the sport's co-ordinated global antidoping efforts as poor."

Ings said signing and maintaining contracts appears to be main issue for players chasing careers in the game's shortest format and suggested the pressure for athletes to stay at their physical peak could send the sport down an undesirable path.

That, alongside the pressure of consistently bludgeoning sixes over the rope, is one of many issues presented by T20 cricket that could force more players into taking illicit substances.

"Risk is a function of motive and opportunity," Ings said. "Motive in cricket exists because selections are highly competitive, contracts involve massive sums of money and injuries are common."

The ever-growing nature of T20 - which has seen the format inspire club-based domestic competitions in England, Australia and the West Indies after the overwhelming success of the Indian Premier League - makes it increasingly hard to mediate drug testing.

Only 547 drug tests were conducted by the ICC last year across all formats of the game.

The council admitted they are "doing what they can" to police cricket, announcing blood tests as in new measure to track a wider variety of banned substances.

Australia's own Shane Warne was caught in one of cricket's most publicised drug offences in 2003 after being caught with Moduretic, a prescription drug banned by the ICC for its common use in masking steroids, in his system.

Warne was banned for a year by the Cricket Council after tearfully admitting to using the diuretic, saying he was "shocked and absolutely devastated that the test sample indicated a presence of a prohibited substance ... because I have not taken performance-enhancing drugs."

Warne returned to international cricket in early 2004 to complete one of the greatest careers under the baggy green.