BCCI to become NADA-compliant on a six-month trial basis

With a history of mishandling testing samples, BCCI aren't fully trusting NADA as yet © Getty

The days of BCCI not complying with the norms of the global anti-doping guidelines may finally be over with the Indian cricket board reportedly agreeing to work the country's anti-doping watchdog, National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), starting with a trial period of six months. The decision was taken by the office bearers of the BCCI and the Committee of Administrators after a meeting with ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar.

"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 BCCI official told PTI.

The ICC had repeatedly knocked on the BCCI's doors on the matter, stressing that it was under extreme pressure from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to ensure that all its member boards become full signatories to their respective NADAs. The BCCI operated with a private agency for its dope tests, remaining steadfast on the grounds that it expected NADA to upgrade its standards before expecting elite sportsmen to comply with it.

BCCI's decision to now comply with NADA regulations, however, comes with a small rider. "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. "We would be providing samples as per mandatory minimum requirement which is 10 percent. It would include top national cricketers and a lot of first-class cricketers," he said.

BCCI's change of heart over the doping test procedures comes after the WADA set in process, in October, a process to make the ICC non-compliant to its revised code for signatories, which came into effect in April 2018. The WADA had originally set October 4 as the deadline for the ICC to convince the BCCI to make its cricketers available to the NADA for sample collection. Since the ICC failed to adhere to the cut-off date, WADA had pushed the ICC's case to its Independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC)

If the ICC were branded WADA non-compliant, then it would have severely crippled its ambitions to see cricket played in the Olympics or the 2022 Asian Games - a decision that was passed by the Olympic Commission of Asia on March 3. However, it will in no way deter ICC from hosting its big-ticket events like the Test Championships, the T20 World Cups and the Champions Trophy.