NADA has no authority to conduct dope tests on Indian cricketers, says BCCI

Earlier, according to the TOI report, the ICC has been asked by the WADA to direct the Indian board to allow dope testing of Indian cricketers conducted by the National Anti Doping Agency. However, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri wrote two letters, one for NADA chief Navin Agarwal and second addressed to the sports secretary Rahul Bhatnagar on November 8, in which he pointed out the technical points which suggest that NADA has no jurisdiction over Indian cricketers. In that letter, Johri cleared that there is no requirement for NADA to tests its cricketers because the board is not a National Sports Federation.

"It is relevant to mention here that BCCI is not a National Sports Federation. Accordingly, NADA does not have jurisdiction to conduct dope testing of Indian cricketers in any domestic or international event organized or under the aegis of BCCI," Johri wrote as quoted by TOI. 

"In light of the aforesaid, there is no requirement for any BCCI official to coordinate with NADA for dope testing of Indian cricketers either during competitions or out of completions."

It is learned that, earlier, the Indian sports ministry had approached the BCCI in October to cooperate with NADA, stating that the lack of co-operation from the BCCI raises the risk of NADA not complying with the WADA code. In the letter, Johri emphasized that BCCI’s present anti-doping system is enough and they didn’t need extra security.

"The BCCI already has a robust dope testing mechanism which is employed for both during competitions and out-of- competitions and the testing of samples by IDTM is already being done at WADA accredited laboratory (NDTL) under aegis of the Sports Ministry."

While asserting that BCCI adheres to WADA's anti-doping code as the ICC is a signatory to the world body, Johri clarified that all the samples are tested in the National Dope Testing Laboratory, 'as mandated by Wada'.

"You will appreciate that for analysis and testing of samples, BCCI adheres to the WADA International Standard of Laboratories and the WADA International Standard for Testing and Investigations.

"Accordingly, the BCCI has engaged the services of same expert sample collection agency that is also engaged by the ICC to prove sample collection services viz, International Doping Tests and Management (IDTM).

"The IDTM sends the collected samples for testing to a WADA accredited laboratory viz, National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), as mandated by WADA. Since the CEO of NDTL is sports secretary, the dope testing for BCCI is conducted under the aegis of the Sports Ministry," wrote Johri.