Publicly the sport of Cricket has been through the mill in the last twelve months.

Corruption and betting rings have brought the game into disrepute and there was even a link made between gambling and match fixing and the death of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer at the World Cup.

Now though English rugby is fighting back.

Gambling as well as drug and alcohol abuse within English cricket have become the focus of a major new campaign to clean up the professional game and raise standards.

The Professional Cricketers Association has launched an "addictive behaviour programme" after evidence that players are jeopardising their livelihoods.

PCA director Jason Ratcliffe, a former player said "Cricket has a history of people getting into trouble.

"In the worst case scenario there have been a fair amount of suicides."
The PCA made a video available to all 18 first-class counties' first XI coaches.

It combines advice from past cricketers who suffered addictions and fictional scenarios where actors play the parts of cricketers who are drawn into addictive behaviour.

Ratcliffe was in the same Warwickshire dressing room as Paul Smith, a fast bowler who told a Sunday tabloid in 1996, soon after his retirement, that he had used drugs throughout his career.

He also played with Keith Piper, who tested positive for cannabis in 1997 and 2005.

Ratcliffe said: "They were using substances but at the time I didn't know anything about it.

"That is one of the areas we are trying to get over in the programme.
"You might not know what's going on and the programme might educate you to see these instances and judge whether you might have a problem and what to do about it.

"Hopefully if someone's worrying about a colleague they will know what to do about it and hopefully we will nip the problem in the bud."
The video, available as a powerpoint presentation, features candid talk from Piper about his drug use.

Former Gloucestershire and Surrey bowler Richard Doughty - who became an alcoholic - is also featured.

He describes how his problem cost him his career, two marriages and relationships with his four children.

Players wishing to contact the PCA about their problems will be put in touch with a professional from Performance Healthcare.

Alternatively, they can contact Piper, Doughty or an anonymous gambler with cricketing links who also appears in the video.

Ratcliffe set up a confidential helpline in 2005 to help cricketers, past and present, with any problems they might have.

He was conscious that in extreme cases in the past, many had taken their own lives.

He said: "In all honesty, when we set it up we thought it would be minimal numbers - maybe six in a year - who would call, but in two years we've had over 25 people call.

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