WADA vs. BCCI: Sports community should thank Indian cricketers

[Eshen]

For once, Indian cricketers are using BCCI's dominant position in world cricket in a good cause - to stand up against a WADA clause that is clearly a breach of a player's right to privacy.

You can read whole report BCCI backs players on anti-doping at CI, but here are the key points -

The WADA penalty

The ICC's new WADA code requires players to inform ICC 90 days in advance (each quarter) a location and time that they will be available each day in that quarter for testing. If the player is not in the location at the time specified, he/she will have a strike recorded against his name. Three such strikes and the player will have breached the code and can face penalties up to a two-year ban.

"We believe the clause with regard to whereabouts of cricketers is unreasonable for three reasons," Manohar said. "Firstly, some Indian cricketers have security cover, and when you have a security cover, you cannot disclose your whereabouts to a third person. Secondly, the privacy of individuals cannot be invaded. Third, the constitution of India gives a guarantee to every citizen regarding his privacy which cannot be invaded. We can appreciate players being tested even when they are not playing. But if ICC or WADA want to test the players, they can inform the board which will get the players at the required location within 24 hours. This is our suggestion."

The suggestion, however, is unlikely to lead to a solution as the WADA, which is an independent anti-doping watchdog set up by the International Olympic Committee, has made it clear in a recent statement that no exemption to the code will be granted to any federation. If the Indian board refuses to budge on the issue, the ICC will have to consider pulling out of the WADA umbrella, which will undermine its fight to ensure a clean sport, its credibility and reputation on the world stage, and rule out cricket from global multi-sport events such as Asian Games and Olympics.

Concerns about the 'whereabouts' clause in the amended WADA code is not a cricket-specific issue and has been treated as a matter of concern in other sports, particularly team sports such as football. FIFA, football's governing body, is still not completely WADA-compliant due to similar concerns and has suggested that only players they deem as high-risk be included in the testing pool. Tennis stars such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have also spoken out against revealing whereabouts information in advance.

"The ICC have to take up a dialogue with WADA," Rajiv Shukla, a BCCI vice-president, said. "Football players also declined to sign the clause and the FIFA is engaged in negotiation with WADA, so that would be the case of ICC also," Shukla said.

[Rabz]

I'm with BCCI here.
Its not practical to inform 90 days in advance about your whereabouts.

ICC have no choice but to break apart from WADA if the indians stand firm to their ground.
May be more work ahead for the ICC execs, they might have to come up with a plan of their own to tackle the doping issue in the game.

[nobody]

What kind of joke is this? Can anyone honestly belive he could where he would in 90 days? I want to ask those who wrote these where they would be in 90 days time for their entire life

[Imteaz]

Blind with Power.

[BANFAN]

Very illogical but could be very difficult to avoid it. Some sports have already accepted it. Tenis players were very voclal against it, but I think they had to sign as well.

[Surfer]

FIFA has already rejected it and several other sports bodies have also done the same. There are three grave problems with the requirement:

1. How in the world can one be sure of one's whereabouts 90 days in advance..........always?
2. Even if one knows, why should one share it? May be someone is spending some days with his girlfriend that he does not know others to know about. There are personal things. This is a blatant violation of privacy.
3. On today's date when sports persons are likely targets for terrorist attacks, its crazy to have their whereabouts in one place 90 days in advance. A bribe to a clerk in WADA and one would be in possession of goldmine.

Unacceptable.

[mahbubH]

Originally Posted by Surfer
FIFA has already rejected it and several other sports bodies have also done the same. There are three grave problems with the requirement:

how do you know that FIFA has already rejected it? is there any link? I can remember Rio was banned for 8 months for missing such a schedule. Since football is played in olympic games, FIFA must follow all the IOC rules including this one.

[mahbubH]

India's sports minister and the country's lone Olympic champion on Monday hit out at cricketers for refusing to divulge there daily location under an anti-doping code.

"All sportspersons should adhere to it and happily follow it," Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill told reporters a day after the nation's top cricketers declined to comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

"The world is concerned about doping and we should support WADA. India has accepted regulatory testing and we adhere to it.

"It should be made clear to sportspersons that testing does not interfere in anyone's personal life."

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday gave its blessing to players who did not accept the whereabouts clause of the WADA code, saying it infringed on their privacy.

The clause requires players to detail their whereabouts for an hour between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm every day for the next three months to allow random out-of-competition testing.

Olympic shooting gold medallist Abhinav Bindra urged the cricketers to accept the code, saying the clause was "no big deal".

"They should just accept it and get on with life," said Bindra, who won India's first-ever individual Olympic gold at Beijing last year.

"I think it is all due to a lack of understanding. But if cricket wants to become a global sport and fight the menace of drugs, they must agree to the WADA code.

"I have been part of the code for a few years and it is no big deal."

India's top players are the only ones in world cricket, a non-Olympic discipline, who had not signed the WADA documents by the August 1 deadline set by the International Cricket Council.

According to WADA rules, anyone missing three doping tests over 18 months faces a ban of up to two years.

"We have no problem with the testing, but we have a problem with the system of testing players," BCCI president Shashank Manohar told reporters on Sunday.

"We have decided to write to the ICC about the concerns raised by the players. The BCCI agrees with the players that the system of testing is unreasonable."

Nine Indian male and two female players were registered for dope testing by the ICC, both during tournaments or random out-of-competition.

The male players in the list are world batting record holder Sachin Tendulkar, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel.Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj are the two women players in the list.

The ICC, responding to India's stand, said the matter will be discussed by the governing body's Executive Board to "find a way forward".

Link

[Tigers_eye]

"The clause requires players to detail their whereabouts for an hour between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm every day for the next three months to allow random out-of-competition testing."
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=100016

Am I reading this right? How would you know where you are at in three months advance? Does our players already gave their whereabouts for the next 3 months? What if someone takes a vacation all of a sudden, or goes camping for a week?

One can't plan ahead in details, or they can?

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
"Am I reading this right? How would you know where you are at in three months advance? Does our players already gave their whereabouts for the next 3 months? What if someone takes a vacation all of a sudden, or goes camping for a week?

Is it includes Coach too?

Then, Siddons is in big trouble! No more short notice vacation...!!

[Blah]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
"The clause requires players to detail their whereabouts for an hour between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm every day for the next three months to allow random out-of-competition testing."
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=100016

Am I reading this right? How would you know where you are at in three months advance? Does our players already gave their whereabouts for the next 3 months? What if someone takes a vacation all of a sudden, or goes camping for a week?

One can't plan ahead in details, or they can?

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/417304.html

The players are not against anti-doping tests but what is the clause in the amended code that they are unhappy about?

The new code mandates the establishment of an International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP) of players who are nominated for random testing based on their ICC rankings.Players from this pool have to inform the ICC at the beginning of every quarter (three-month period) of the year, a location and time that they will be available for an hour each day in that quarter for testing. If a player changes his/her schedule in between, then he/she needs to update the whereabouts information to the nodal officer either online or even through SMS. However, if the player is not in the location at the time specified, he/she will have a strike recorded against his name. Three such strikes and the player will have breached the code and can face up to a two-year suspension from the game.

[Tigers_eye]

Thanks Blah!!

So how broad this list can be? Say Shakib is being targeted. So can he say, "I will be at Dhaka"? Or he has to say everyday, at which location he will be at from 6am-11pm? I mean what if he wants to go out to eat at a restaurant instead of staying at home? He has to notify the change?

Another issue I feel is bad with this is why only choose selected few? Why not the whole team?

Looks like the Nodal officer will become players Moms/wifes best friend and primary contact.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye

So how broad this list can be? Say Shakib is being targeted. So can he say, "I will be at Dhaka"? Or he has to say everyday, at which location he will be at from 6am-11pm? I mean what if he wants to go out to eat at a restaurant instead of staying at home? He has to notify the change?

You have to be at the reported location an hour everyday, not the whole day.

It's like being in parole. Just because few sports person got caught for taking drugs, they now want to treat the whole sports community as a bunch of criminals!

[HereWeGo]

I cannot support the BCCI stand point..... the players can always change location of their whereabouts and update it accordingly...nothing is set in stone.
The information is not public and thus privacy i strictly maintained. This is just BCCI showing its power as always. The players should respect the fact that the game is not famous for them but they are famous for the game.

Furthermore they are a bunch of professionals and are expected to be available according to the employers needs. Just because they don have to wake up everyday at 9 and go to office doesnt mean that their employer don have the right to know about their whereabout a certain hour in every day.....they are getting paid for it.....

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Eshen
You have to be at the reported location an hour everyday, not the whole day. ..

Thank you. So every day, in a preassigned time for one hour (between 6am and 11pm) they have to mention where they will be. That is much more reasonable especially when the players can change settings in advance as 24 hours. If I was a player I would pick the 6am to 7am hour. Just to make the testers life a little difficult.

Now I can take a side. I am with WADA. I want this expanded to all players not just few selected ones.

[Eshen]

I guess it's not that hard to keep WADA informed where you will be at 1 hour everyday. Nonetheless, it's still intrusion of privacy and breach of security for players under terrorist threats.

[IanW]

This is a classic political problem ; it's the conflict between two good things.

On one hand, we want to keep cricket a clean and honest sport.

On the other hand, we want to respect the privacy of our sports stars, and keep them safe.

As to why this is neccessary, lets take the last cricket drug scandal I can remember - Shane Warne's use of steroids.

Heres a quick web page about it.

http://www.abcofcricket.com/Article_...news220203.htm

Note Warne was nailed in out-of-competition testing, and the detected substance was not the drug itself, but the masking agent (for those of you not up on your pharmacology, among other things, anabolic steroids speed muscle healing).

If Warne had been able to 'accidentally miss' his testing appointments due to schedule conflicts, being in the wrong place etc (and, remember, he's already taking masking agents so it's not like he doesnt know what he's doing), then he gets away with it.

In my view, the best way to handle this is for the affected players to simply say 'If my security people are informed I need to be present for a test in 12 hours, then should I not be at the place agreed beween my security and WADA for that testing, then I will accept any ban from playing with good grace'.

Ian Whitchurch

[Eshen]

BCCI said they can get a player to a testing facility with 24 hours notice - that should be good enough for WADA's purpose. But WADA is playing hardball and refused BCCI's offer

[IanW]

Eshen,

The problem for WADA with that is that any such deal would immediately be cited as a precedent by, say, the Uzbekistan swimming team, so they have to play hardball.

Its a problem. There's no good solution. And, personally, I suspect the Indian cricket team will die in a ditch over this, precisely because they do not want to die in a ditch.

[Eshen]

If WADA does not want to be flexible with requirement of players, players should not faulted for not being able to comply with their rules.

Once again, WADA is treating players like they are bunch of criminals. There is no reason for players to tolerate this kind of treatment.

[IanW]

Eshen,

Yeah there is. Its so a drug cheat like Shane Warne can't rob their sport of credibility.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by IanW
Eshen,

Yeah there is. Its so a drug cheat like Shane Warne can't rob their sport of credibility.

In same logic we can ask citizen of every country be put under parole because every country has good number of criminals.

[Tintin]

Originally Posted by IanW
Eshen,

The problem for WADA with that is that any such deal would immediately be cited as a precedent by, say, the Uzbekistan swimming team, so they have to play hardball.

Its a problem. There's no good solution. And, personally, I suspect the Indian cricket team will die in a ditch over this, precisely because they do not want to die in a ditch.

WADA should simply classify the sports then. Cycling, athletics and swimming do need to test the players on a frequent basis. Cricket or chess don't need a great deal of off-competition testing.

Interesting to see that Munaf is listed among those who will be tested. He does look like one who eats steroids at all times of the day. Ishant should have been picked too.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by Tintin
WADA should simply classify the sports then. Cycling, athletics and swimming do need to test the players on a daily basis. Cricket or chess don't need a great deal of off-competition testing.

I think the problem is that WADA came out of IOC, so it's natural that they think standard needed for cycling, athletics, and swimming should be universal standard for other sports too (though that still does not justify why they should be allowed to breach privacy of any sports person).

Team sports such as football, cricket, and rugby should form their own anti-doping agency (unless WADA agrees to be flexible to be accommodate need for those sports). They can prolly also include other skill based sports such as tennis.

[desiman21]

They are doing it again.... BCCI is asking ICC to move away from WADA. Why only the indian cricket players cannot abide the WADA rules where ALL the players from 571 other sports can abide by them. Even all the other cricket national boards are agreeing with the rules of WADA.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/417468.html

The reason indian players have given are pathetic! Security concern for Tendulker and Dhoni, as if they are the only ones under any threats. All the players from USA, UK, Australia, Afganistan, Israel are abide this rule. I guess they are more in security risks than the these indian players. It is just in short that indian players are inconvenienced and they are forcing their own ideas on rest of the cricket world.

I hope the ICC and other nations take a tough stand against this.