A day after backing the players in rejecting the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) controversial ‘whereabouts clause’, the Indian cricket board on Monday made efforts to show that it was serious about controlling the use of banned substances in the sport.

The BCCI is now set to chart out its own anti-doping measures for domestic cricketers, while proposing that the ICC adopt a “cricket-specific” anti-doping code that will take into consideration only the duration of the international cricket season, rather than WADA’s all-year-round stipulations.

BCCI’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty told The Indian Express that these dope tests on domestic players would commence from next year. “This year, the BCCI will first educate every association about dope testing. We can’t just issue templates of WADA and expect them to read it. The language used by WADA is difficult to understand, so we’ll be hiring experts to give lectures on this. We want associations and players to understand why this thing is important in today’s sport,” Shetty said.

Earlier this year, the ICC had circulated a template of the anti-doping code for all of its members to adopt in order to help them govern anti-doping matters at a domestic level in a manner that will be consistent with WADA’s code-compliance.

Educating players

The BCCI said it would spend two months in the education phase — with sessions with players, doctors, coaches, physiotherapists and trainers — explaining the pros and cons of the use of medicines in modern sport. “Many cricketers at the domestic level don’t have knowledge of all these doping activities. We will inform Ranji Trophy-level cricketers what it is all about,” Shetty said.

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