New Delhi: 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 as it was continuously trying to bring down BCCI under its control for a decade. BCCI claims to be an independent body financially and hence it did not follow NADA rather gave the samples of players to IDTM an international dope testing body.
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.
“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 rules will be applied to everyone equally” Jhulaniya said.
