DNA Edit: Row over Doping - BCCI’s logic is the same given by offenders worldwide

Prithvi Shaw’s is certainly not the first instance where BCCI accredited players are being caught for anti-doping rule violations.

Starting from Delhi speedster Pradeep Sangwan’s case in 2016, Yusuf Pathan was the next to be caught and left out with a mere five-month suspension by BCCI’s internal dope mechanism. The tussle between BCCI and National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), an accredited lab under the supervision of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), has now taken a new turn after three more cricketers — Prithvi Shaw, Akshay Dullarwar and Divya Gajraj — have been caught and let off with little penalty.

NADA has continuously been writing to cricket board to allow it to test Indian cricketers in all domestic and international competitions since 2017, but BCCI has refused any such request reasoning that “they do not fall under the ambit of National Sports Federation (NSF)”. But BCCI keeps insisting to NADA that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards doping and follows its own anti-doping rules, which are in line with the WADA Code, and has engaged the services of an independent agency called the International Doping Tests and Management (IDTM).

From the past responses of BCCI addressed to NADA Director General and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it becomes clear that the Board has been under the mistaken belief that a sports body has to be a govt-recognised NSF in India for NADA to have any testing authority in that sport.

BCCI’s argument that it is an autonomous organisation affiliated to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of NADA, stands no ground after ICC became a signatory of WADA Code. In simple words, BCCI has its own rules related to anti-doping policy and has its own agency, National Dope Testing Laboratory, to conduct tests on its behalf. That’s why Shaw was handed pre-dated suspension, March 16 to November 15, without realising that he was allowed to take part in the IPL in between.

Not just this, Shaw also helped North Mumbai team to lift T20 Mumbai League title during this ban period. BCCI’s own rules, where a normal punishment for the first-time offender is a two-year ban, were blatantly ignored. NADA would have never shown such leniency.

Shaw and two others didn’t opt for the B Sample and quickly accepted their guilt to gain sympathisers within the BCCI. The Board’s amateurish logic that the cricketers had not consumed the stimulant on purpose and that it entered their bloodstream via the cough syrup they drank is an excuse given by all dope offenders worldwide. But what will happen when NADA or ICC appeal against the laughable punishments handed over by the world’s richest cricket board?

ICC has more reasons to worry because this may hinder cricket’s attempt to gain entry into the Olympic movement from as early as 2028. This dream could well die a premature death if BCCI fails to sign on the dotted lines soon.