Giddins, the England A fast bowler who was sacked by Sussex because of the incident, is to appear before a four-man panel chaired by Desmond Perrott QC.

A Test and County Cricket Board discipline committee banned Giddins from first-class cricket until April 1998 after rejecting in August his plea that a spiked drink was responsible for him testing positive during Sussex's championship match against Kent at Tunbridge Wells.

Worcestershire have given one-year summer contracts to opening batsman Elliott Wilson, from Felsted School, and offspinner Neil Slade, son of the county's former all-rounder and committee member Doug Slade.