A cricketer who was found with almost £50,000 of heroin and crack cocaine has been locked up.

Sagawat Hussain, 24, a former cricketer for Lancashire at under-21 level, had been packaging up drugs at his Accrington home in order to pay off a drug debt, a court heard.

The former assistant bank manager had fallen in with ‘the wrong crowd’ after his arranged marriage broke down and became estranged from his family.

The court heard that Hussain had been trying to clear a drugs debt when he accepted accommodation from drug dealers.

Hussain, whose head was bowed throughout the hearing, was jailed for four years by Judge Jonathan Gibson at Burnley Crown Court. Prosecutor Sarah Statham told the court that police found £49,000 of drugs and £2,550 of cash at Hussain’s Accrington home on May 10 last year.

During the police raid officers found heroin with a street value of £39,880 and crack cocaine worth £9,146 at the house. The bulk of the drugs were found in a garden shed and scales, scissors and packaging was found along with wraps of drugs in the attic bedroom, Mrs Statham said.

The former Enfield first team cricketer was arrested and made no comment during his police interview. Hussain, of Mansion Street South, Accrington, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Jeremy Lasker, defending, said Hussain has no previous convictions and had learned a ‘bitter lesson’.

He said the defendant is intelligent and showed a good deal of promise in his previous job as an assistant bank manager.

The barrister said Hussain no longer had contact with his ‘traditional’ family after leaving his wife, who he married through an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

Mr Lasker said Hussain began taking drugs after the break up and was offered accommodation by drug dealers without realising the property would be used to store drugs.

He said: “He found it extremely difficult to extricate himself from the situation.

“He has come to his senses and has no intention whatsoever of returning to the drug scene.”