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Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis was remanded in custody on Wednesday after being charged with attempting to smuggle cocaine


Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis was remanded in custody on Wednesday after being charged with attempting to smuggle cocaine with an estimated street value of 200,000 pounds into Britain.The 40-year-old was arrested on December 8 after border control officers at London's Gatwick airport found four kilogrammes (nine pounds) of the illegal drug in liquid form in fruit tins in baggage that had arrived from the Caribbean island of St Lucia.Lewis was arrested with Chad Kirnon, a 26-year-old one-time English league basketball player, and they were questioned by customs officials before being charged.The duo appeared via video-link on Wednesday from prison for an administrative hearing at a magistrates court in the southern English town of Haywards Heath.Both men were remanded in custody until January 14. No bail application was made.Lewis has not entered a plea to the charge of importing cocaine but Kirnon has pleaded not guilty.Guyana-born Lewis took 93 wickets during his England Test career and 66 wickets in one-day internationals, at averages of 37.5 and 29.4 respectively.He finished with a Test batting average of 23 but was widely regarded as having failed to live up to the potential of his early years, when he was tipped to become the new Ian Botham.He was branded the "Prat without a Hat" by the tabloid Sun newspaper when, after having his head shaved by team-mate Devon Malcolm, he was forced off the field with sunstroke during an England tour of the West Indies in 1994 after failing to apply suncream or wear any headgear.Lewis retired from county cricket in 2000 because of a persistent hip injury after spells with Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey.He re-joined Surrey earlier this year with a view to playing in Twenty20 matches but that plan was scuppered by injury.

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