In British rugby league, winger David Foggin-Johnston is currently serving a ban of two years for cocaine use uncovered by in-competition testing.
Closer to home, former Melbourne player Joel Smith got four years for not only taking cocaine but also offering it to his AFL teammates.
Kagiso Rabada (right).Credit: AP
Both players were sanctioned under the same global system that has just handed South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada a one-month suspension for use of a “substance of abuse” that will end with his return to action in the Indian Premier League.
This will be followed by his appearance against Australia in the world Test championship final at Lord’s in June, a showdown that Rabada might have been banned from had he been given a three-month sanction also available to the deliberating authorities under their global code.
That may seem like a lot of flex in the global system given years of screeching headlines about illicit drug use among athletes.
But it is exactly the kind of pragmatism that former World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) director-general David Howman, now head of integrity for world athletics, says elite sport was crying out for over many years.
“Pragmatism is the cornerstone of these things from my perspective,” Howman says from Wellington. “It’s something that has taken time for WADA to accept that these substances be on the banned list, but with this criteria allowing for special treatment of it if someone tests positive.”
What separates Rabada, and fellow cricketer Doug Bracewell who was also banned for a month – albeit after a far longer and messier process in New Zealand last year – from Foggin-Johnston and Smith, are the circumstances and magnitude of their usage.
In the case of the latter two players, they admitted during a hearing process to wider problems with drugs. Foggin-Johnston argued he did not take cocaine after 11.59pm on the night before he played a match. But the UK anti-drug authority concluded that, based on the fact his urine sample showed more than 140 times the WADA limit for in-competition use for cocaine, he most likely had done so.
A similar charge had been put to Bracewell, who contested the fact with multiple corroborating witnesses. He eventually succeeded in arguing that he had not taken the drug after the aforementioned crossover point for a positive to be deemed “in-competition”.
Joel Smith during the Demons’ semi-final against the Blues in 2023.Credit: AFL Photos
Many specifics of Rabada’s case are yet to come to light, but Howman argues the ultimate conclusion was correct – thanks to a system that now has more nuance to it than previously.
“That’s taken a while,” he says. “But this outcome now has fallen under the pragmatism category, where WADA has accepted that it’s a player welfare issue and some of these things – because they are so prevalent in society – are going to be in sport, and you’ve got to look at each case on an individual basis. The outcome that was reached in the Rabada case was pretty sensible.”
Two ex-athletes, former Australian captain Tim Paine and former Socceroo Francis Awaritefe, have debated some aspects of the Rabada case on social media. Both are still heavily involved in sport, Paine as a coach and Awaritefe as a players’ advocate. In particular, Paine questioned why Rabada’s return home from the IPL was termed a “personal issue” until the outcome of the process run by the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport became clear.
Howman believes that athletes and sporting bodies should always start with the principle of transparency, and only keep matters in-house if there is a valid reason. For Rabada, Howman suggests there was such a reason for delaying any announcement – uncertainty over whether the ban would be for one month or three. The minimum penalty is allowed once the athlete has completed a treatment and education program, which Rabada flew home to undertake.
But he also questions why it took so long between the test being conducted in mid-January and Rabada being informed of his positive test in early April.
“In the sports I’m engaged with at the moment, particularly athletics, we will publish cases involving provisional suspensions because we want other athletes and the public to know why that athlete is not out on the field or on the track,” Howman says. “That’s the right thing because other athletes are entitled to know why … [that athlete] didn’t rock up.
“Then you’ve got to look at each case with these substances as to the athlete’s welfare. The fact this sample was taken in mid-January and the result wasn’t known until early April, that’s the sort of thing that worries me. Because the athlete is competing in the interim not knowing there’s possibly a positive. They would prefer to hear about it within days or weeks at least of the test being taken.”
As for the pragmatic tack now taken by WADA and its signatories when it comes to drugs like cocaine, cannabis or ecstasy, Howman says it not only reflects the nature of society in 2025, but also the true priorities of anti-doping. It should be about catching cheats, not shaming athletes or boosting legal fees.
“One way I would suggest people think about it is, if they are going to an authority, just ask the authority to check out with WADA what they would be happy with,” he says. “They have to deal with many of these cases and reach resolutions that are practical, rather than outcomes that are excessive and lead to appeals, which then expend more time or more money.
“That’s how it is meant to run, so we don’t get entangled in too many legal processes or extra costs – the only beneficiaries of that are the lawyers.”
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