A Western Australian state cricketer appears set to face a committee hearing tomorrow after reportedly returning a positive drugs test during the recently completed Australian season.

It is not clear whether the apparent transgression of the player, whose name has not been released, is in relation to the use of recreational or performance-enhancing drugs. But it has been confirmed this evening that his alleged offence is regarded as having been serious enough to warrant a formal appearance before the committee in Melbourne.

Four Western Australian players - Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Simon Katich - were recently selected in the Australian Test team which will tour England next month. But it has been confirmed that none of that quartet is the subject of this investigation. Western Australia's only other Australian Cricket Board (ACB)-contracted player, Mike Hussey, is also believed to be free of suspicion.

State cricketers in Australia are randomly drug-tested in line with the ACB's condemnation of the use of performance-enhancing drugs and doping practices in sport. A specialist ACB Anti-Doping Committee is then empowered to investigate in situations where a player has returned a positive result to a drug test; refused to consent to a test; or where it is reasonably believed that a player may have committed a doping offence.

A Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) spokesman said late today that all matters relating to the hearing and the potential imposition of penalties were in the hands of the ACB under the formal anti-doping policy that it enforces.

For its part, the ACB is refusing to make public comment on the matter at this time.

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