Mumbai, August 03: In an act of defiance, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has rejected the anti-doping code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC), declaring the controversial ‘whereabouts clause’ a threat to the safety of Indian cricketers and an invasion into their privacy.
The BCCI officials said that they were only upholding the players’ genuine concerns and not arm-twisting the ICC or Wada. “I’m concerned about my players,” said BCCI president Shashank Manohar. “I cannot be worried about the others.” Minutes after the decision, a stunned ICC said it will try to find a way out. “The ICC is aware of the issues of concern and it remains confident they can be addressed to everyone’s satisfaction,” its spokesman said.
Board officials had met Indian captain MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh (three from the 11 enlisted to sign-up with Wada) at an emergency meeting in Mumbai, called to discuss the compliance issue.
The rejection of the code was based on three “unreasonable” factors: first, the players have security cover and hence cannot declare their whereabouts; second, it is an invasion of their privacy; and third, it violates the Indian constitution which doesn’t allow invasion of its citizens’ privacy. Incidentally, even the world football and hockey bodies, Fifa and FIH, are not signatories to Wada’s anti-doping code, their grouse being similar to that of BCCI’s.
The BCCI has suggested the ICC need not be Wada-compliant to make the game dope-free. “Wada is a private agency engaged by the ICC. Tomorrow the ICC may say ‘we don’t want you’. We can have our own dope-testing mechanism,” Manohar said.
Board secretary N Srinivasan pointed out that the players are not against testing. “BCCI is in favour of an anti-doping mechanism. Our cricketers have also never said no to dope tests. Players have also not said no to out-of-competition tests. All that they have said is no to the whereabouts clause,” he said.
Manohar refused to agree that the Indian players’ non-compliance keeps them apart from the cricketing and sporting universe. “I don’t think so,” he said. He also rubbished talk that the Indian board was reneging on its word on the dope code stating that while the issue was decided in 2006 but the clauses were never discussed in any ICC meeting.
As far as facing action from ICC is concerned, Manohar seemingly has done his math well on whether he can rustle up the required numbers to prevent ICC from acting against India at the world body’s executive board meeting. At this point it is unlikely that more than one or two boards would demand action against the BCCI.
Be it Australia, South Africa, England or Sri Lanka, every board is on board with BCCI.The Indian officials can also count on help from ICC vice-president Sharad Pawar and advisor IS Bindra.
But BCCI’s chief administrative officer Prof Ratnakar Shetty is confident they will not need the help of numbers or the influence of Pawar and Bindra.
“We are demanding a practical solution. It is impossible for Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni to disclose their whereabouts.”
A hopeful ICC official pointed out that “there will not be a third world war over the issue. We will try to find a solution”. But that solution, needless to say, will have to be acceptable to the BCCI.
–Agencies–