Chris Lynn's secret cocaine ban revealed as Renegades move looms

Chris Lynn served a one-month suspension for a positive cocaine test two months before the finding was made public, England's Cricket Regulator has confirmed, according to Guardian Cricket.

The disclosure lands just days after reports linked the 36-year-old with a switch to the Melbourne Renegades ahead of the Big Bash League season, which starts next month.

Lynn's sample was collected on T20 Blast finals day, 18 July, when he scored 39 and four as Northamptonshire won the trophy for the third time, Yahoo Sports reported via Cricket News.

Laboratory analysis in France detected benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, triggering the disciplinary process that has only now come to light.

Lynn later admitted the drug use had taken place over several hours spanning the evening of 15 July and into the early hours of 16 July 2026, a period he detailed in his own statement.

That same evening, before the drug use he described, Lynn had been struck on the foot by a low full toss from Duan Jansen and retired hurt as Northamptonshire beat Gloucestershire in their quarter-final.

After the Blast final Lynn travelled to Sri Lanka to join the Lanka Premier League, but managed only one outing for Galle Gallants before a leg injury forced him out of the tournament on 29 July.

Two days later the Cricket Regulator told him of the adverse finding and placed him under provisional suspension, with his public admission following roughly three weeks after that notification.

Lynn was initially charged under two articles of the ECB's anti-doping code, though one was dropped after it emerged the quantity of cocaine detected fell below the minimum threshold required under World Anti-Doping Agency rules to sustain that particular charge.

The Regulator accepted that Lynn had no therapeutic use exemption for cocaine but ruled the violation was out of competition and unconnected to any attempt to enhance his performance, a distinction that shaped the leniency of the outcome.

He had faced a potential three-month ban but had that cut to one month after completing what the Regulator described as a "substance of abuse treatment program".

The suspension was backdated to run from 31 July to 30 August, meaning Lynn has already served his punishment in full.

He is not contracted to Cricket Australia, so any additional sanction would rest with whichever BBL franchise he represents, and he remains free to play having completed the ban.

Lynn holds the record as the Big Bash League's leading run-scorer and six-hitter, and has also featured in four one-day internationals and 18 T20 internationals for Australia.

His career has taken in stints with more than 25 different T20 franchises worldwide, underlining the scale of a profile now shadowed by the doping finding as he eyes a new club for the coming Big Bash campaign.