In February this year, ICC CEO Dave Richardson said "how he has been trying to help the BCCI sort out the issue with WADA and NADA in order to take a step towards inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Olympic Games".
The days of Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) tug of war with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may finally be over with the sports body agreeing to work with the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on a trial basis for six months.
This has come as a big relief to all the parties concerned as BCCI had earlier taken a tough stand against any such move by claiming that the samples of players have already been collected by a Sweden-based IDTM company.
The decision to allow collection of 10 per cent of samples for testing by NADA was reached during a meeting between BCCI, Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar in Mumbai on Monday.
"We decided that NADA will collect only 10 per cent samples for testing. We had several objections in the past but it was decided to build on trust first before taking a call on the road ahead," a senior BCCI official told DNA.
It has been learnt that Manohar informed BCCI that it is necessary to comply with the WADA rules if India wants to send their women's team to 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Being a WADA signatory, ICC is duty bound to make sure that all the member countries abide by the international anti-doping law, ICC has always made its position clear before BCCI.
In February this year, ICC CEO Dave Richardson said "how he has been trying to help the BCCI sort out the issue with WADA and NADA in order to take a step towards inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Olympic Games".
However, claiming that NADA has unreliable track record, BCCI was clear that unless WADA promises to name a different testing agency, it would be difficult to reach an agreement.
The cricket board's change of heart will now force WADA to not pursue its earlier stand of referring the ICC's non-compliance issue to its Independent Compliance Review Committee.
WADA had originally set October 4 as the deadline for the ICC to convince BCCI to make its cricketers available to the NADA for sample collection. Since BCCI failed to adhere to the cut-off date, WADA decided to take action against its signatory, ICC.
A decision was then passed by the Olympic Commission of Asia (OCA) on March 3I that if all member countries of ICC are not WADA compliant, then it would not be impossible to see cricket being included in the 2028 Olympics or the 2022 Asian Games. However, it would have no bearing on ICC events like Test Championships, the T20 World Cups and the Champions Trophy.
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