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At least 10 more dope tests of cricketers pending: BCCI official

Cricket’s Low High: Cricketers concerned said they took the substance ‘inadvertently’

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Has BCCI's internal mechanism of handling dope tests through National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) failed to adhere to the standard practice? This, after it has now come to light that injured Test opener Prithvi Shaw's doping result was deliberately delayed to allow him to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL).

Going by BCCI's own admission that Shaw failed a dope test on February 22, why did NDTL not make the report public within 10 days, as per WADA clause 5.2.6.5, while the report of Akshay Dullarwar and Divya Gajraj came within this period?

A BCCI insider has been attributing this failure to "unforeseen delay on the part of NDTL", but the sports ministry is now preparing to take up the issue with the Indian cricket board, BCCI.

As reported by DNA, the 19-year-old cricketer is likely to face a two-year ban if either International Cricket Council or World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appeals against BCCI's self-styled controlling mechanism.

Not just this, a reliable source in BCCI has told this paper there may be more cases of drug violation among cricketers pending at NDTL. "The result of at least 10 more cases are awaited by the board and in all cases cricketers pleaded to have taken the substance 'inadvertently' to take advantage of the lenient approach of the cricket board," the cricket board official said.

But the earlier excuse of BCCI to avoid coming under the umbrella of WADA saying "cricketers don't need the same physical strength like weightlifters or track and field athletes" has fallen flat after the discovery of acetazolamide – a diuretic and masking agent – in Gajraj's sample, which is prohibited at all times in WADA's list of prohibited substances.

Dullarwar's sample was also found to contain desacetyl deflazacort, a glucocorticoid prohibited "in-competition" by WADA.

A ministry official asked, "How did BCCI not find it funny that all three cricketers ingested banned substances 'inadvertently'?"

"Even if that is the case, WADA Code has no mercy and it is up to the athlete to prove innocence. This casts a shadow over BCCI's mechanism to curb doping menace," the official said.

That is a reason the ministry has been insisting that the cricket board should also come under NADA.

Now that ICC is planning to be part of the 2028 Olympic Games, the pressure is likely to come on BCCI to be anti-doping-compliant. That's why it's likely that ICC will appeal against Shaw's sentence as "the young cricketer played the full IPL season in the same eight-month ban from March to November 2019".

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