Will evaluate BCCI reply before deciding on action against cricketers, says NADA DG

By Rohit Mundayur

New Delhi, June 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) Five cricketers are among the list of athletes who have been issued notices for failing to disclose their whereabouts by the National Anti-Doping Agency. A decision on whether these will be counted as mistakes will be taken once the body does the evaluation of the response that has come in from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"Based on their response and our evaluation of it, we will decided whether we have to count it as one mistake or not," NADA Director General Navin Agarwal told IANS on Saturday.

While three such failures can lead to a potential two-year suspension after a hearing, Agarwal said that this will be counted as a failure by the national anti-doping body only after it takes into consideration the explanation provided by the players themselves or the board that governs them, in this case the BCCI.

"We have a National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Athletes included in this are supposed to give their whereabouts everyday for the next three months for a one hour slot," Agarwal said.

Cheteshwar Pujara and K.L. Rahul is among three men cricketers who have been issued notices while two women cricketers have been pulled up as well.

"Some of these players they thought that there is a lockdown and so they thought they don't have to fill their whereabouts. Now we have to resume out of competition testing and for that we need the whereabouts," he said.

Agarwal said that notices have been issued to those players who have failed to do so. The BCCI, Agarwal said, have given an explanation to NADA in which it said that there were some issues with relation to the password for filling up the form.

"There were some minor issues with the password of the errants and they are rectifying that," he said.

Source: IANS