The sports ministry will no longer try to bring the Board of Control for Cricket in India under the purview of the National Anti-Doping Agency, the Times of India reported.
After exchanging several letters with the BCCI and Nada, the ministry agreed to let the cricket body continue with the ongoing process of getting the players’ samples tested by a Sweden-based private firm called International Doping Tests & Management.
Sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore confirmed the development when asked if the ministry was trying to come to an agreement with World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cricket Council. “The ministry wants every athlete to be tested,” Rathore said. “Whoever is conducting dope tests, ministry has no objection,” he added.
Last year, Wada had threatened Nada that it could lose its accreditation if the BCCI did not allow the samples of cricketers to be tested. “I am glad that cricket is getting dope testing done by an outside agency,” Rathore had said. “But when all national sports bodies and also of some other countries trust our Nada, the cricketers can also do that.”
BCCI had hit back at the ministry’s plea stating it is an autonomous body affiliated to the ICC, and had to operate within the stipulated regulations of the world body.
