It seems BCCI has successfully managed to thwart the government's interference in dope testing of Indian cricketers. The sports ministry has backed off from its efforts to bring the cricket board under the jurisdiction of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
After the exchange of several letters between the ministry, BCCI and the NADA over the contentious issue of extending the ambit of dope testing to include cricketers - registered with the BCCI pool - the ministry has allowed BCCI to continue with the present arrangement of getting the samples tested by the International Doping Tests & Management (IDTM), a Sweden-based private firm.
"The ministry wants every athlete to be dope tested. Fans, who believe in their sporting idols, shouldn't feel cheated. Whoever is conducting dope tests, the ministry has no objection to it. The ministry has achieved its task as we want all the sports activities and sportspersons free of dope activities," sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said on Friday in response to a query whether the ministry is still pursuing the case with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Later, a senior official informed that the ministry has no plans to involve the NADA in dope testing of cricketers and it just wanted to open a dialogue with the BCCI to ensure that proper collection of samples was happening.
TOI had exclusively reported in October last year that WADA had asked the ICC to direct the BCCI to allow drug-testing of cricketers by NADA. Failing this, it had warned that NADA could lose its accreditation with the WADA, leading to problems for other sports disciplines as well. In fact, in November last, Rathore had categorically stated that the BCCI should trust NADA, just like every other sports body in the country does. "I am glad that cricket is getting dope control done through an outside agency. But when the entire sports bodies of the country and also of some other countries trust NADA, the cricketers can also do that," Rathore had then said.
However, BCCI had rejected the ministry's contention arguing that it wasn't a national sports federation, but an autonomous sports organisation affiliated to the ICC and was required to operate within the rules and regulations set by the world body.