Hampshire’s Keith Barker will be eligible to return to cricket in July
Dan George
BBC Sport, South
Hampshire all-rounder Keith Barker has been given a 12-month ban after testing positive for a prohibited substance.
The 38-year-old has not played since a positive out-of-competition test was returned in July 2024 which contained an adverse analytical finding for the drug indapamide, which is used to treat hypertension.
Hampshire said that the violation appeared because of an “administrative error between medical professionals and Barker”.
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) confirmed that, following a hearing on 5 March this year, Barker was handed a backdated 12-month suspension. He will be eligible to return to cricket from 4 July.
In a statement Hampshire said: “The controlled substance, which was a like-for-like alternative to Barker’s previous long-standing medication, was not declared to UK Anti-Doping at the time of use and a request for a retrospective therapeutic use exemption was rejected.
“The review panel accepted that Barker had no intention of breaching anti-doping rules and was not seeking any performance advantage.”
The county added that they had been working with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) to support Barker and had been unable to make any public comment about his absence from the team.
Giles White, Hampshire’s director of cricket, said: “This is a regrettable incident which is the result of a genuine mistake.
“Keith is an exceptional professional and everyone at the club is focused on supporting him to return to first-team action from July.”
Barker said: “Over the last nine months I have been part of a very tense, gruelling process leading to the results of my hearing.
“Having been forced to step away from my career and the sport I have loved since I was a young child due to a genuine administrative error has been mentally taxing and left me fearing for the loss of my career that is very dear to me.
“I’d like to thank the support of the PCA, all the professionals involved in working on my case, Hampshire Cricket and family and friends for helping me get through this difficult time.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to playing the game that I love, my hope is for any young professionals to look at my case with a renewed sense of vigilance around medication and anti-doping procedures in professional sport.”
Barker, a former England youth footballer, previously played for Warwickshire and has taken 533 first-class wickets during his career, as well as scoring almost 5,500 first-class runs, including six centuries.
