Mumbai: The BCCI Monday said it will work with the National Anti-Doping Agency for the next six months, a major climbdown from its previous position of not adhering to the global anti-doping guidelines.
The decision that was taken by the top BCCI office-bearers and Committee of Administrators after a meeting with the International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar, came with its share of riders.
“It will be a six-month tripartite agreement between ICC, BCCI and NADA wherein the samples of our registered pool of players will be going to the National Dope Testing Labaratory (NDTL) through NADA, unlike now when Sweden-based IDTM does the sample collection. If we are not convinced, we won’t renew the agreement,” a senior BCCI official said.
The Board has not yet intimated NADA about its stand.
“I will only comment when I receive any written confirmation. I have not yet been officially intimated,” NADA Director General Navin Agarwal said.
The World Anti-Doping Agency had clearly told the ICC that the BCCI has to come under NADA’s ambit so that the world body remains compliant and the matter was intimated to the BCCI during the board meeting in Dubai.
Accordingly, the BCCI decided to come under NADA with a rider that its own chaperons will be collecting the urine samples and it will be handed over to the NADA.
“We maintained that we have no faith in NADA’s Dope Control Officers (DCOs). There has been too many examples of inefficient handling of samples by NADA DCOs. Here we are talking about some of the biggest names in Indian sport like Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. We can’t blindly trust them,” the official said.
In order to remain WADA compliant, a national sports federation needs to at least provide 10 percent of the samples for testing.
PTI