{"id":395937,"date":"2026-04-24T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/395937\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:12:08","slug":"former-new-zealand-cricketer-doug-bracewell-given-two-year-ban-for-cocaine-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/395937\/","title":{"rendered":"Former New Zealand cricketer Doug Bracewell given two-year ban for cocaine use"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Doug<\/p>\n

\nDoug Bracewell playing for Central Districts 2024.
\nPhoto: PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n

Former New Zealand and Essex all-rounder Doug Bracewell has been given a two-year suspension after testing positive for cocaine<\/a> during an English County Championship match last year.<\/p>\n

Bracewell’s positive test came on 25 September, 2025 while he was playing for Essex against Somerset at Chelmsford.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old admitted using cocaine<\/a> after the first day of the fixture and in the early hours of the morning prior to the second day’s play.<\/p>\n

After being notified of the positive test, Bracewell retired from cricket<\/a> on 28 December.<\/p>\n

Despite his retirement, Bracewell, who had signed for Essex for the final three Championship matches of last season, was still issued with the two-year ban by the Cricket Regulator.<\/p>\n

He previously served a one-month ban in 2024 after testing positive for cocaine during New Zealand’s ‘Super Smash’ Twenty20 event.<\/p>\n

The two-year suspension is backdated to 24 November, 2025, the date of his provisional ban, and will run until 23 November, 2027.<\/p>\n

Bracewell, who played in 69 matches for New Zealand across all formats, has accepted the ban and Essex will not face punishment.<\/p>\n

“Essex can confirm that Doug Bracewell failed a routine drugs test in September 2025,” the club said in a statement on Friday (local time).<\/p>\n

“The club supports the Cricket Regulator’s decision to impose a period of ineligibility of two years. All employees are required to meet the highest standards of professional conduct.<\/p>\n

“While the club does not condone Bracewell’s behaviour, we are committed to supporting him through rehabilitation in line with our policies and procedures.”<\/p>\n

– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Bracewell playing for Central Districts 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT Former New Zealand and Essex all-rounder Doug Bracewell has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-395937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}