MELBOURNE (AFP) -- The International Cricket Council (ICC) is aiming to have a worldwide doping policy in place before the Champions' Trophy tournament in England next September, ICC's Chief Executive Malcolm Speed, said here yesterday.

He said the ICC would meet soon with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whose president Dick Pound criticised Cricket Australia (CA) earlier this year over the Shane Warne doping controversy.

"We are looking at a generic doping programme that will go across the top of cricket," Speed said.

"We are about to have meetings with WADA to look at adopting the WADA programme. There is some opposition within cricket to that."

Speed said the major issue was a mandatory two-year sentence for a first offence.

Warne received a one-year ban in February when he tested positive for a banned diuretic.

Pound later criticised Cricket Australia for initially letting Warne train with the Victorian state and Australian teams during his suspension.

Bowing to pressure from the Australian Government, CA tighened the ban conditions in August, meaning Warne could train only in private during his suspension.

Speed hoped the WADA would give the ICC some discretion in sentencing.

"If there are cheats out there who are using banned substances, yes we want to punish them," he said.

"But if there are issues that fall below that level, we want the discretion to deal with them on a more issue-sensitive basis.

Speed said cricket was serious about anti-doping, but admitted the sport had "a long way to go" to properly address the issue.

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