The drunk driving case against cricketer Herschelle Gibbs was postponed in his absence in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Friday.

His lawyer, Kevin Titus, told magistrate Ingrid Freitag that Gibbs was "unfortunately not able to attend court".

He was currently playing in Wales under a contract that was to expire at the beginning of September.

His legal team had also learned from Cricket SA that the South African team would be playing a one-day series in England until the end of September, which means Gibbs would be back in the country only in early October.

Titus said he had been aware of this problem some weeks ago, and had tried to get the state to expedite the matter.

However a control prosecutor had told him at that stage that the docket was not ready.

With no objection from prosecutor Morne Julius, Freitag postponed the case to 3 October.

As is customary with arranged non-appearances by accused, she issued a warrant of arrest but ordered it be held over to that date.

She said Gibbs' R500 bail was provisionally forfeited to the state.

Julius told the court that the investigation had been completed, and Freitag said copies of the docket and charge sheet would be handed over to Titus.

Gibbs was arrested in Sea Point on 28 March after being pulled over by police for speeding.

Sapa