DUBAI: South Africa batter Zubayr Hamza has been “provisionally suspended” by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after he tested positive for a prohibited substance under the anti-doping code. “Hamza has been charged with the presence and/or use of a prohibited substance following the detection of Furosemide in a sample collected out-of-competition on 17 January 2022 and has been provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the disciplinary process,” the ICC said in a statement on Friday. “Furosemide is a Specified Substance contained in Section S5 of the 2022 WADA Prohibited List.” On Wednesday, Cricket South Africa (CSA) issued a statement, which confirmed that Hamza was “not disputing” the positive test and was “cooperating fully with the ICC” and had agreed to voluntary suspension commencing immediately while written submissions were presented to the ICC.
Furosemide is not a performance-enhancing substance, and CSA said that Hamza had been able to identify how it had entered his system. “The process to follow will entail presenting evidence that there was no fault or negligence, or no significant fault or negligence on the part of Zubayr,” the CSA statement said. “CSA, SACA (South African Cricketers’ Association) and WPCA (Western Province Cricket Association) are supporting Zubayr in this process, and will continue to do so until the matter is concluded.”
Hamza, 26, made his Test debut against Pakistan in early 2019 when he became South Africa’s 100th Test player since readmission. He made his ODI debut against Netherlands in November last year, scoring 56 in a washout. The series was postponed after that following the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid. Hamza has played six Tests in all and had withdrawn from both Test and ODI series against Bangladesh because of “personal reasons”.