BCCI blinks, comes under NADA ambit

After years of resistance, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday agreed to come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). The decision was announced after a BCCI delegation, headed by CEO Rahul Johri, met sports secretary Radheshyam Jhulaniya.

It can be termed a big victory for the Sports Ministry and NADA who had been trying for a decade to bring BCCI under the national dope testing umbrella. The BCCI has invariably stressed on its financially autonomous status to stay away from NADA control. It employed the services of Sweden-based International Dope Testing Management (IDTM) for cricketer’s sample collection and got them tested at National Dope Testing Laboratory.

That the government also had to use strong-arm tactics to make BCCI fall in line was evident from the ministry officials’ confirmation that they had to hold back the clearances of the South Africa ‘A’ and women’s team tours. The tours are now cleared.

The BCCI had opposed NADA’s complete takeover of cricket as it felt the “whereabouts clause” would compromise the top players’ privacy and security. Of late, it had also been vocal about the lack of quality in NADA’s procedure and questioned its integrity in sample collection and transportation.

However, BCCI itself has been guilty of lacking in transparency when it comes to testing and adjudication of cases. The recent handling of the Prithvi Shaw case and that of three other cricketers, who were tested positive for the banned substance, being the recent examples.

Jhulaniya was categorical in stating the law of the land applies to all. “NADA will carry out the test whenever and wherever they want. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) clause 5.2 gives the authority to the national anti-doping agency to carry out all testing in its territory irrespective of the athletes’ country,” he said.

“All athletes, irrespective of their country of origin or country of citizenship come under the jurisdiction of the national anti-doping agency, that’s WADA’s charter and we are a partner. Every federation is on the same footing for enforcement of law. IDTM was an outside agency. Now that agency will be NADA. The law applies to everyone equally.”

“We told BCCI to commit to us in writing that rules and regulations by government of India will apply and you will honour that and they have agreed to it,” he said.

However, there were a few concerns cited by the BCCI.

“Their first concern was the quality of the dope testing kits — whether it is WADA accredited kit or not. We addressed the concern,” Jhulaniya said.

“The second was regarding the competence of pathologists and sample collecting officers. We assured them our dope control officers are well trained but if you require a higher qualification then we have no issues but they will be at a higher fee. This facility will not be just for BCCI but all federations.”

“The third was about the timely decision of cases. We clarified to them there is a three-month window and 90% of the cases are being decided within that. If the athlete or his/her advocate is not asking for time, we are deciding the case in less than 90 days.”