BCCI backs players on 'whereabouts' clause by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:

Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni

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DateLine: 2nd August 2009

 

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has backed its players and asked the ICC to renegotiate the 'whereabouts' clause in the anti-doping code with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after a meeting in Mumbai on Sunday.

 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, who were present at the meeting of ICC and BCCI officials, maintained that security concerns remained if they had to reveal their location for three months, as mandated by the contentious 'whereabouts' clause in the amended anti-doping code.

 

BCCI called the same clause, which requires players in the testing pool to submit the details of their location for a period of three months, "unreasonable" and a "violation of privacy".

 

BCCI president Shashank Manohar said the board is totally in favour of dope testing but it is against the system that has been put in place.

 

"The code is unreasonable as players have security cover," Manohar said. "Players can't reveal their location as it is a violation of privacy. The decision was taken after speaking to Harbhajan, Sachin and Dhoni. The players agree to testing out of competition, not the 'whereabouts' clause.

 

"We have no objection to players being tested. However board felt players could be tested during series or during camps but they cannot be tested when they are not playing cricket."

 

The 11 Indian players in the ICC's international testing pool, and other international players, are not against the concept of anti-dope testing and are in agreement with the larger aim of the WADA code, which is to ensure a clean sport.

 

However, the subject of contention has always been the 'wherabouts' clause in the amended code, which requires all players in the pool to submit details even during off-season, to facilitate effective out-of-competition testing. Only Indian players have missed the July 31 deadline to submit the first information forms. All other international players in the testing pool from other countries have done so.

 

Now the ICC is also in a little problem since The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations has warned the apex body that if they did not penalise India's players for failing to submit to the new anti-doping norms in time, it would ensure that players from all other countries would be relieved from similar obligations.