WADA expresses concerns to ICC about BCCI compliance

The BCCI has been furnishing details of top Indian cricketers’ “whereabouts” on the WADA database since 2017, a far cry from its perceived objection to the contentious clause.

The BCCI since the 2017 Champions Trophy has been uploading the “whereabouts” of its players in WADA’s Anti Doping Administrative and Management System database.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been furnishing details of top Indian cricketers’ “whereabouts” on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s data base since 2017, a far cry from its perceived objection to the contentious clause.

The BCCI is still not compliant with the National Anti Doping Agency, and WADA has expressed its concerns to the International Cricket Council on the issue. The matter was tabled at the recent ICC board meeting in Dubai and the Indian cricket board was asked to sort the issue out with NADA urgently.

It has been learnt that the BCCI since the 2017 Champions Trophy has been uploading the “whereabouts” of its players in WADA’s Anti Doping Administrative and Management System database.

The ADAMS database was created to coordinate anti-doping activities and to provide a mechanism to assist stakeholders with their implementation of the code.

It stores athletes’ whereabouts, therapeutic use exemptions, test planning and results management, and the lab results module.

“We need to clear this misconception. Since 2017, we have been consistently uploading the whereabouts of our centrally contracted players on ADAMS. We never had any issue with whereabouts clause,” a BCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

“A few of our players first entered WADA’s registered testing pool (RTP) during the 2015 ICC World Cup. Our issue is NADA’s handling of samples and how their dope control officers (DCO) work. That is something we are not convinced about and we have told that to ICC also,” the official added.

There is a school of thought in the BCCI that the issue can be resolved and the board can become NADA-compliant on its own terms.

“We can propose a solution. BCCI can hire a set of chaperones who will help in urine sample collection of players in the presence of dope control officers of NADA and that will be directly sent to National Dope Testing Labaratory,” he said.

Currently, Swedish agency International Doping Tests and Management collects samples of Indian players and the testing is done at the WADA- accredited NDTL.

“The BCCI has been regularly testing at least 25 top players keeping the World Cup in mind,” said the official.