MELBOURNE, Feb 21: Graeme Rummans, a New South Wales player in the Australian interstate competition, faces a possible two-year ban after failing a drug test, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said Thursday.

Rummans said he would use an ACB hearing next week here to prove his innocence.

ACB public affairs general manager Brendan McClements said the ACB had told the New South Wales selectors not to choose Rummans, 25, for Sunday’s limited overs interstate final against Queensland in Brisbane.

Rummans, a left-handed batsman and slow left-arm bowler, had tested positive for the masking agent probenecid, the ACB said in a prepared statement.

The ACB said they received formal notification from the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) Monday that the A and B samples taken from Rummans before a training session in December had proved positive.

“If Rummans is found to have committed a doping offence for the use of a masking agent, the prescribed penalty under the ACB Anti-Doping Policy is a two-year ban from competing in any international or interstate cricket,” the ACB said.

ACB chief executive James Sutherland said: “The facts are that Graeme Rummans has tested positive for probenecid and that the circumstances surrounding this result and the imposition of any penalty will be determined by the ACB Anti-Doping Committee (on Feb 28).”

Rummans, reading from a prepared statement at a Sydney news conference, said on Thursday: “I welcome this hearing as an opportunity to prove my innocence.

“It is inappropriate for me to comment any further.”

Rummans has played six interstate one-day matches this season, scoring 177 runs at 35.40 and was set to play in Sunday’s final.

“Obviously there’s little I can say about it at this stage, but all the team is behind Graeme,” New South Wales captain Shane Lee said.

Western Australian fast bowler Duncan Spencer was banned for 18 months in April last year after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.—Reuters