Amateur players should familiarise themselves with the WADA Prohibited List and understand how they can avoid using banned substances.

The Prohibited List

Each year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) releases a list of prohibited substances and methods. To see the most recent list, click here.

Supplements

All supplements come with risk and players should think carefully before using them. As such, the ECB encourages a ‘food first’ approach: meaning players should get all they need from good nutrition, hydration, recovery and rest. Should a player wish to use supplements, they must mitigate the associated risk by obtaining an in-date, active batch testing certificate for the product that they are using. This can be done via the Informed Sport website. Players should be clear that a batch testing certificate mitigates but does not remove the risk of supplement use and that no supplement can be considered entirely ‘safe’

Medications

Some common medications can contain prohibited substances. Under the principle of ‘strict liability’, players must check everything they put in their bodies before they do so. Medications can be checked for prohibited substances via the Global DRO website 

Anti-Doping Quiz

To find out more about anti-doping, what you can do and what you can’t, you can take a quiz by clicking here.