The move is one of several being considered by the England and Wales Cricket Board to tighten up their testing procedures in the light of the Phil Tufnell case. The England spinner was fined £1,000 and had an 18-month ban suspended when his word that he had ``forgotten'' to take a test during Middlesex's final championship match against Essex was accepted by an ECB disciplinary committee.
``Extended testing is something we're looking at,'' said Tim Lamb, the ECB chief executive. ``We're convinced there is no drug problem in cricket but we must make sure we are not complacent.''
Whether the move would include the close season is unclear. Matthew Fleming of the Professional Cricketers' Association, who have been holding talks with the ECB about the situation, points out that players are not under contract between October and April, so are not then answerable to their clubs.
The International Cricket Council would also like to introduce testing
during Test series, surprisingly absent at the moment, but are worried that many of the nine Test playing countries do not have adequate facilities.
``That is something that could hinder us if we tested out of season too,'' said Lamb. ``There are very few IOC [International Olympic Committee] approved laboratories and we wouldn't want to get involved in a case like that of Diane Modahl in athletics.'' Modahl questioned the positive results of a random test in Portugal and was cleared after a lengthy battle.
The Sports Council are happy that their testers carried out their duties properly in the Tufnell case but Lamb is adamant that there will not be another case of a player forgetting to provide a sample when picked.
``We have not set a precedent,'' he said. ``Players must not think that they can just miss a test and get away with it. People have said that Phil has been treated leniently but I don't think that's the case.''
Tufnell now faces the prospect of Sports Council testers turning up at his Essex home unannounced some time between now and departure for the West Indies early in the New Year. He will also be randomly tested in 1998.