The ICC has finally approved the anti-doping code after the BCCI seemed to accept the modified “whereabouts clause” in the code.
The clause, which had earlier wanted the players to be available for at least an hour on a daily basis for testing by declaring where they were going to be for that part of the day for the next three months, has been tweaked in such a way that the Indian board seems to be satisfied with the approach.
It now requires only the “cricketing whereabouts” of the players. Earlier, players like Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni had refused to accept the clause citing reasons like privacy and security-breach.
The BCCI had stood by its players and the negotiations had dragged for more than a year. However, the change in the clause has ensured that there will be no further obstacles and the code was finally approved by the ICC at meeting that took place in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Singapore-c3005 earlier this month. A draft of the code has now been sent to the internationals for approval.
The ICC, in November 2006, had signed an agreement with the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) code because they wanted to expand the presence of the sport as a global one. The one other major reason was that they were trying to get into the Olympics in 2020, which would have required them to be a part of this arrangement.
But problem came in the form of the “whereabouts” clause, which was opposed by players from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. The clause is a little more stringent in other sports like athletics, in which the athletes are required to inform their whereabouts 90 days in advance.
The change in the clause now means that the cricketers need to divulge only their “cricketing whereabouts” and not their personal ones. The players will be grouped into two categories, the National Player Pool, which will have 11 players from each of the top eight ranked teams in the one-dayers.
The players who fall under the pool will now have to divulge their whereabouts during a competition. However, this means that the cricketing body’s hopes of having out-of-competition testing, like in other sports, will not be possible.
The chief executive of the Professional Cricketer’s Association, Angus http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Porter-c82384, has also said that the new code made much more sense than the previous one.
The ICC chief executive, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719, also sounded a relieved man when he announced that the code was in place. He mentioned that the ICC will now focus on educating the players about their responsibilities when it comes to testing.
Educating the players would be a huge responsibility given that cricket has been one of the sports which took to testing its players for anti-doping checks very late in the day.
New Anti-Doping WADA Code to be Adopted by ICC
He also added that “cricketing whereabouts” will refer to where a player would be when he is part of the team, training, playing and travelling and where he would be available for testing. The team would inform the whereabouts on behalf of the player.
Some would feel that the BCCI has flexed its muscles and has once more bent the ICC’s will. But, for this one time, the BCCI may have had truth in its arguments. As Lorgat said, it is possible that the BCCI had genuine concerns for the security of the players. In this age of terrorist threats, the least they can do is to stand by their players when the players feel that their privacies are intruded and their security is risked.
More importantly, the WADA has not yet responded on whether it accepts the new code or not!
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