CRICKETERS ARE TOP BOOZERS - BRITISH SURVEY

LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Cricketers have taken over from rugby
players as the sporting figures most likely to be found propping up
the bar, a British survey showed on Saturday.

The Independent newspaper questioned 300 top participants in nine
sports, including women, on their drink and drugs intake and was
unable to find a single teetotal cricketer.

Seventeen percent of cricketers said they drank more than 28 units of
alcohol a week, the maximum recommended by government health experts,
and another 16 percent said they drank between 21 and 28 units.

The newspaper said rugby players, traditionally known as sport's heavy
drinkers, had lost their top rating because of a shift to strict
fitness regimes and controlled diets.

The survey found eight percent of rugby union players were teetotal
but no rugby league player was. However the league players drank less
than the cricketers, with 20 units a week as their maximum.

The survey identified jockeys as the heaviest smokers with one in 10
smoking more than 20 a day and only 60 percent saying they were
non-smokers, a far lower proportion than for other sports.

Fifty-four percent of rugby league players said they had tried
cannabis and 10 percent of weightlifters said they had tried cocaine.

Almost no survey participants confessed to using drugs
regularly.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady