
Cricket-Rabada tested positive for cocaine, says South African testing agency
FILE PHOTO: Cricket - ICC Men's Champions Trophy - Semi Final - South Africa Practice - Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan - March 4, 2025 South Africa's Kagiso Rabada during practice REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File Photo
(Reuters) -Kagiso Rabada's month suspension after he failed a drug test was because the fast bowler tested positive for cocaine, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport has said.
Rabada, who was with the Gujarat Titans when he returned home from the Indian Premier League in April, admitted failing a drug test and apologised for his actions.
The 30-year-old, ranked number two in the test bowler rankings, said he had returned an adverse analytical finding for the use of a recreational drug.
Rabada had been tested in January when he was playing in the SA20 for MI Cape Town and SAIDS said in a report published this week that it detected the presence of Benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.
Rabada returned from his suspension to play two matches for Gujarat, who finished third in the standings.
He is due to spearhead South Africa's bowling attack in the World Test Championship final at Lord's when they face Australia from June 11-15.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
38 minutes ago
- The Star
Chess-Carlsen puts meltdown behind him to win Norway Chess tournament
FILE PHOTO: Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen looks on ahead of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris, France, April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes (Reuters) -Chess great Magnus Carlsen recovered from his meltdown against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju last weekend to win the Norway Chess tournament on Friday. The Norwegian world number one drew his last game against India's Arjun Erigaisi but it proved enough for him to finish on 16 points, half a point ahead of American Fabiano Caruana. Indian Gukesh, who lost to Caruana in the final game, ended up third on 14.5 points. "It's a huge relief after a day like this, a tournament like this," Carlsen said. Last Sunday, Carlsen had Gukesh on the ropes for much of their game but his composure cracked under the pressure of a ticking clock and he committed a blunder that handed Gukesh a decisive advantage. Carlsen slammed his fist on the table after the defeat before exchanging a quick handshake with Gukesh, apologising for his outburst and storming off. "Obviously my struggles here have been well documented but at least I fought until the end," the five-time classical world champion, who did not defend his title in 2023 citing a lack of motivation, said. "I'm not going to say that this tournament was my last (in standard chess) for sure, but I enjoy other forms of chess a lot more." (Reporting by Julien Pretot)


The Star
38 minutes ago
- The Star
Tennis-Ruthless Sinner downs Djokovic to reach maiden French Open final
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 6, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates winning his semi final match against Serbia's Novak Djokovic REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq PARIS (Reuters) -World number one Jannik Sinner defeated record-chasing Novak Djokovic 6-4 7-5 7-6(3) in a clash of generations on Friday to set up a blockbuster French Open final showdown with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. Playing a younger, modern version of himself, the 38-year-old Djokovic looked every bit his age for a while on Court Philippe Chatrier as Sinner used his blistering forehand to send the Serbian chasing the ball left, right and centre. But the former Serbian world number one, chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title, showed he thrived on the grandest stage and threatened a comeback only to miss three set points in the third. The Italian, who recently came back from a doping ban, stood firm in the tiebreak and wrapped up the contest on his second match point. He will face a sterner test in Sunday's final against Alcaraz, who advanced when his semi-final opponent Lorenzo Musetti retired injured at the beginning of the fourth set. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; editing by Pritha Sarkar)


The Star
38 minutes ago
- The Star
Sailing-SailGP roars back into action in New York after Rio cancellation
FILE PHOTO: SailGP F50 team Canada competes in front of the Statue of Liberty after the start of the finals race during the SailGP sailboat racing event won by team New Zealand in New York Harbor, New York City, U.S. June 23, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo NEW YORK (Reuters) -SailGP teams will shake off the rust in New York this weekend, as the global racing championship gets back into action after a wingsail defect forced a brief hiatus with the cancellation of May's Rio event. Organisers identified the defect after the Australian boat's wing collapsed in San Francisco in March and carried out repair and upgrade work to remedy the issue on the F50 fleet in time for the highly anticipated New York competition. "We had almost two months of learning to take from the previous events," said Brazil's twice Olympic champion Martine Grael, SailGP's first-ever female driver. "We have a lot of changes in our sailing - there are almost too many changes and we know you can only handle a few changes at a time. We're focusing to see what we can adapt here." The recently added Brazil team hope to move up the standings from 10th as the action kicks off on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT), two and a half hours earlier than planned due to inclement weather. The three-times champions Australia, who hold just a one-point advantage over Britain in the standings, want to impress after making headlines off the water, with new A-List co-owners Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds announced this week. The great equaliser between the celebrity-fronted top dogs and the up-and-comers has been the competition's tech-first approach to sailing, with each of the vessels equipped with 125 sensors continuously feeding data. "We give the data to everybody," SailGP's Chief Technology Officer Warren Jones told Reuters. "Top teams hate it, but the newer teams love it." Jones was able to build the robust analytics operation from "a blank sheet of paper" by cherry-picking from billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison's Oracle capabilities. The hope is that the data points broadcast across the competition can help transform the next generation of fans - newcomers and diehards alike. "There are the basics - you need to know how fast people are going because then it adds the jeopardy of what's going on," said Jones. "Then there's people out there who want to know how many tacks they've done and what the tack is compared to the last tack - we can rate that." (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Pritha Sarkar)