Remember Mario? Yes, the famous video game character. Once you start playing it, you don’t feel like leaving it till you have gulped every coin, earned several lives or popped out those hidden powers. It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it? And what is more exciting about it is that I can restart, control or may be discard it whenever I want - seems quite familiar with BCCI’s attitude towards most of the cricketing activities by the ICC.

The on-going BCCI vs WADA tussle ruled the news bulletins for obvious reasons. Top Indian cricketers – MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh - took a stand against the ‘whereabouts’ clause in the latest code by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and BCCI, expectedly, backed it. In an emergency meeting, the cricket body, rejected the clause that required it players to reveal their location one hour each day for three months in advance for out of competition tests. The reasons it cited were that the clause was unreasonable, it invaded players’ privacy and violated the Constitution of Indian.

So, what’s the big deal about it? Well…BCCI is the only sports body to do so out of 571 sporting organizations ranging from International Olympics Committee, International Paralympic Committee, International Sports Federation and the code has been approved by UNESCO.

Take this. They say it’s an invasion of privacy. Yes it is, but then why would a world organization change a clause for a country’s cricket body, not even the sports ministry, if I may say so. Considering the fact that the revised Anti-Doping Code came into being on January 1 this year and July 31 was the deadline to sign the code, why did BCCI and players wake up late Read more…

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The Indian cricket board (BCCI) seems to be spoiling for a fight with the world. Its rejection of the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) regulations—specifically, the “whereabouts” clause which mandates that athletes to make themselves available for testing every day of the year—upsets everyone in the world of sport, except the players. It angers the government, it alienates the BCCI and cricket from world sport.

To be fair to the board, the fears of the Indian cricketers about invasion of privacy and threat to security can’t be put down as the isolated whingeing of superstar egos. There have been protests worldwide by sportspersons against the new WADA regulations, which stipulate they must be available for a random drug test for an hour each day of the year. With cricket being played almost round the year, cricketers are available for testing most of the year. By contrast, a shooter or a sprinter trains in isolation most of the year, with a coach and a doctor, thus becoming more likely suspects of doping, and probably need to be policed more heavily than holidaying cricketers.

The BCCI, effectively, is showing defiance when 571 sporting bodies and 192 countries haven’t—it is rejecting the WADA as “just a private body”. Why is the BCCI thus risking an end to cricket’s dream of being part of the Olympics, or being kicked out of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games?

Perhaps the BCCI doesn’t really want to be part of global sporting events. “There’s no money to be made there for the BCCI,” says a source in the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Read more…

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ICC has had no out-of-competition testing so far

Complete exclusion from ‘whereabouts’ requirements looks unlikely for cricket

The International Football Federation (FIFA) does not have the top players of the world in its International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP). Instead, it has those who are international-level players serving doping-related suspensions plus those branded as ‘high risk’ because of injuries.

Any other player could also be included in the list if evidence of ‘suspicion’ is provided, for example alteration of hormone profile and/or alteration of blood parameters.

The FIFA IRTP is not a fixed list and thus there are no minimum numbers prescribed for inclusion. Apparently an understanding was reached in Zurich last April at a meeting between FIFA representatives and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Director General, David Howman.

“There has been no difference in the way we have approached this to any other sport,” Howman told AP then. “It was done because they specifically said they would appreciate it.”

Details unknown

Even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) set out to back the Indian players included in the IRTP against the ‘whereabouts’ clause in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Read more…

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Breaks don’t come easy to us and right now we are savouring one such rare break from cricket by spending most of the time with our families & friends, giving rest to our jaded bodies, trying to recover from small niggles, following fitness programme prescribed by our team management and doing simple things in life which we often miss as cricketers. In between we have some odd sponsor commitments and franchise events along with the few famous meetings for the WADA issue. Apparently, we are still the top newsmakers and are featuring in the newspapers and TV channels for all the reasons, portrayed as villains for not signing along the dotted lines suggested by WADA.

It seems like everyone and anyone has a view on it and the majority blaming us for creating much ado about nothing. It has become such a huge crime, that the intellects from all walks of life have obliged us by making us realise how irresponsible we are as a sportsperson and as a citizen of this civilised world. The general outlook is that we are spoiled brats who want doping to continue in the chaste world of sports or hardly care about this serious issue.

In the last eight years I have been tested at-least 15 times (the recent one being the one in the World-T20 in England along with Dhoni) and every time I bowed gleefully to the demands of the circumstances. I would like to clarify one thing here that we are responsible sportsmen and completely understand that proper measures should be taken to uproot this menace from the arena of sports. We support the cause and are up for it. Personally, I am against Read more…

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To maintain a largely untarnished image, authorities must insist upon players saying where they are at given time

Imagine this scenario: a great sportsman, popular beyond measure, has announced his retirement and has only two matches left before he rides off into a lucrative sunset. His career and reputation are made, but he knows that the earning potential from his last two games, if things go well and his team win the series and with it his sport’s greatest prize, is immeasurable. There is one small problem: he’s injured.

How badly injured, he doesn’t really know. He knows, though, that he is hurting but that he has to play in the last two games. Just has to.

Cortisone, legal, frequently administered and a wonderful masking agent for pain, won’t do the trick because there is a limit to how much of it the body can properly cope with, and he’s already had five injections this year. So he asks around. Takes something, anything, and plays his last two matches.

Far-fetched? Fanciful? Thankfully yes, because cricket historically has not had a problem with drugs, either performance-enhancing ones or those designed to mask injuries. Read more…

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