Ex-Australia youth player accuses team official of rape

Australian police are investigating allegations from a former Australian youth cricket player that he was raped by a team official during a 1985 tour.

Jamie Mitchell, 55, believes he was assaulted after a team doctor treated him with a sedative.

He made his allegations in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) interview.

Cricket Australia says they are co-operating with the police investigation.

Mitchell has demanded the sport’s governing body provide answers on what they knew of the alleged incident.

In the interview, he said he was relieved that “finally there’s some scrutiny of that 1985 tour”.

“Instead of being a highlight of my cricketing life, that tour has caused me trauma and distress over many years,” he said in a statement.

Mitchell was an 18-year-old leading batsman on the Australian under-19 tour of India and Sri Lanka in 1985. The under-19s side is seen as a “feeder” team into the national side.

On the last night of the tour on 30 March in Colombo, he said he felt unwell and went to the team doctor, who injected him with a strong drug that knocked him out for at least 10 hours.

He said his teammates were instructed not to check up on him in his room that night, and he believes in that period he was assaulted by a leading team official. He did not give any further details in the interview on how that occurred.