WADA's clause : BCCI gets ready for the battle

[Guest Shivani]

India's top cricketers are reluctant to sign a controversial anti-doping clause which, they claim, infringes on their privacy, leaving the Cricket Board in a fix. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked all its affiliated members to get their players to sign the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) form by August 1 which leaves a rattled BCCI with little time to negotiate with the reluctant players. The cricketers are unhappy with the clause which makes it necessary for them to give details about their availability for one hour every day for random out-of-competition testing by WADA officials. The players have been asked to fill their "whereabout update form" by August 1 but have they have not done so with most of them expressing reservations. The cricketers feel such a clause not only infringes on their privacy but also makes it difficult for them since they are not aware of their programmes two months in advance during the off-season. According to the WADA rule, any sportspersons missing three doping tests in 18 months faces a two-year sanction. "The players have certain reservations about this clause. They have already expressed their concerns to the BCCI. We are seeing what can be done," a top BCCI official said. The BCCI has convened an emergency meeting of its all-powerful Working Committee in Mumbai on Sunday to work out a solution to this vexed issue. "The BCCI, on its part, has also conveyed the reservations of the players on the whereabout clause to the ICC. The ICC has been told about the specific reservations the players have on certain clauses of the WADA rule and it may be difficult for the BCCI to stick to the August 1 deadline," the official said. The ICC is signatory to the WADA which requires all its members to comply to the anti-doping guidelines. In the form, the cricketers are expected to give details about their residence, training and regular activity locations in advance.

[beetle]

Agree with the cricketers here.

[Sachinism]

^^ Totally. Who would sign a stupid contract like that. Living the kinda lifestyle they do, of course they won't know what they'll be doing.

[Zelig]

^^ Totally. Who would sign a stupid contract like that. Living the kinda lifestyle they do' date=' [b']of course they won't know what they'll be doing.

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BCCI must back its players in their stand against WADA's whereabout clause Cricketers have already more than enough on their plate to now be subjected to one more assault, this time on their right to privacy, writes Pradeep Magazine. See graphics More... Board must back players Pradeep Magazine, Agencies New Delhi, July 30, 2009 First Published: 23:47 IST(30/7/2009) Last Updated: 00:39 IST(31/7/2009) Cricketers have already more than enough on their plate to now be subjected to one more assault, this time on their right to privacy. The new rules of the Word Anti Doping Agency (WADA) make it mandatory for players to be available for tests at all times, every hour of the day, every day of the year and need them to inform the agency about their whereabouts three months in advance. These rules have already cooked up controversy and major protests all over the world. If you think our players are being unnecessarily petulant at feeling almost outraged by this diktat, then you have not heard reactions from some of the major international athletes and even human rights bodies on the issue. When this rule came into effect from January this year, the reactions were one of disbelief. Rafael Nadal, who normally exhibits all his volcanic energy only on the tennis courts, called these rules as 'a disgrace' and an intolerable hunt'. US hurdler Lolo Jones went to the extent of saying: “Maybe in the future, they will find a tag they can put on us like dogs have.” One more protesting voice said: “Why not just have a GPS chip in our skin and they can just figure out where we are.” Though the condemnation of this method of trying to control the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs has been widespread, WADA has been adamant and not caved in. Not many may agree with IOC president Jacques Rogge's defence of this new rule that 'sports today has to pay a price for suspicion,' but the athletes so far have had no choice but to comply. Three missed tests in an 18-month period can even result in the athlete being banned from competing in the Olympics, but cricket has to figure out what punishment should be meted out to offenders. There are many who will argue that cricket as a sport does not require human beings to become genetic clones of super fit animals, hence the use of drugs is non-existent here. It is a game that relies more on skill, and a player spends most of his time in training to balance his body in unnatural angles to either bowl or bat effectively. Since the International Cricket Council is now a signatory to the WADA rules, it cannot escape by giving this somewhat naïve reasoning to escape the edict. What it could possibly have done is protested and told WADA that it can't force cricketers to be available, even if it is for one hour of the day, for these tests. Since cricket is not immune to protests and where adjusting powerful lobbies even at the expense of breaking rules is not uncommon, this draconian rule can be challenged by a cricketing body even at the peril of being sanctioned by the world Olympic body. The Indian cricket board has been at the forefront of many such rebellions, just and unjust, within the ICC, and now they have been forced by the reactions of their own players to take one more stand. Are we going to see a major row breaking out between the Indian cricket authorities and the IOC? For once, this is a fight not about who makes more money and who controls the game, but of letting individuals have a right to their privacy. And if India shows spunk to stand up and fight, it will have the entire international athletic fraternity behind it.

[yoda]

This is a weird requirement by WADA. There must be a better way than this.

[DomainK]

Leave alone the cricketers....no sane person will ever accept that. Who plans everything in life? If my boss asked me to sign a contract like that, I would change job. Because a couple of idiots from Pakistan behaved in an unethical way, all the innocent cricketers around the world will be marched like prisoners under probation. WTF?

[Sachinism]

Leave alone the cricketers....no sane person will ever accept that. Who plans everything in life? If my boss asked me to sign a contract like that, I would change job. Because a couple of idiots from Pakistan behaved in an unethical way, all the innocent cricketers around the world will be marched like prisoners under probation. WTF?

Its not just cricket, these are WADA regulations, so I guess they must be the same for any sportsperson, but if that was the case, I can't understand how come nobody has raised this issue before

[DomainK]

Its not just cricket' date=' these are WADA regulations, so I guess they must be the same for any sportsperson, but if that was the case, I can't understand how come nobody has raised this issue before[/quote'] May be there is a misunderstanding of the requirements.

[siddhu]

Its not just cricket' date=' these are WADA regulations, so I guess they must be the same for any sportsperson, but if that was the case, I can't understand how come nobody has raised this issue before[/quote'] I think, this issue was raised by Tennis players as well... Nadal and a few other folks did oppose this clause. But, why do they want to have this clause. What good is it going to do. I mean you know the whereabouts of the players in advance. how is that going to help in fighting drug abuse. Might as well put the GPS tracker belt on their legs, so WADA knows where the players are!!

[Texy]

I bet YUVI voiced his opinion louder than other cricketers

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INFORMATION GAP over dope code has led to India cricketers' apprehensions If Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt can work with the World Anti Doping Agency's (WADA) Code, why should India's cricketers have apprehensions? That is the big question stirring the sport at the moment. More... If they can, why can’t we? Anand Vasu, Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 01, 2009 First Published: 00:54 IST(1/8/2009) Last Updated: 00:57 IST(1/8/2009) If Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt can work with the World Anti Doping Agency's (WADA) Code, why should India's cricketers have apprehensions? That is the big question stirring the sport at the moment, and the answer might simply be that these players have incomplete information about what they're getting into. Maybe some of the players' current confusion would be sorted at Sunday's emergency working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai. It is possible that Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni could attend the meeting. But first, some facts. At no stage did WADA go out of its way to take interest in cricket being dope free. Rather, it was cricket which sought accreditation to WADA. This was necessary to stress the need to have a clean sport and avoid high-profile cases like that of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif from tarnishing the sport's international image. More importantly, a movement has begun to promote T20 as an Olympic sport in the 2020 Games. T20 has already been included as a medal sport in next year's Asian Games. Without being a WADA signatory, cricket's participation in the Olympic movement is impossible. Another fact: While several players around the world have reservations about how the WADA code will be enforced, specifically with reference to logging whereabouts details, no other cricket board has threatened not to adhere to the code. The root cause of the problem, in the case of India's cricketers, is perhaps a lack of knowledge of how this system will work. When filing 'whereabouts' players are required to specify their location for one hour in each of the 365 days in the year. This has alarmed some players who guard their privacy very closely. However, the ICC has, in a letter to all boards, stated that testing 'will be 'reasonable' and that the majority of the Out-of-Competition testing will be based around team and FTP (Future Tests Programme) commitments and not while players are on holiday.” Of course, it's unclear if the Indian players who are raising objections know about this, as only two of the 11 due to be part of the IRTP (International Registered Testing Pool) even attended the IRTP education facilitated by the ICC. In the six-step process (see box) India managed the first — getting the players to sign the IRTP forms but failed in every other step (as reported by HT on May 18). Cricket Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board and New Zealand Cricket were the first to finish the process. FIFA and WADA The ICC is aware that football's apex body is not currently WADA complaint and is closely monitoring that situation. However, WADA made it clear that FIFA would not receive any special considerations with regards to filing “whereabouts”. In any case, the ICC observed, “the FIFA proposal, even if it were deemed to be Code compliant, could not be applied to cricket because of the way in which international and domestic cricket is structured and the current state of anti-doping programmes at a domestic level.” Confidentiality The online system that the ICC will use to log “whereabouts” data online is the Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS). Within the ICC itself, only two staff members have access to this system. All manually submitted information is kept under lock and key. The ICC also has a dedicated confidential anti-doping fax, mobile and email address. While member boards will have access to some of this information and will be “bound by strict confidentiality requirements” if the boards are not “in a position to preserve such information in a strictly confidential fashion, WADA will consider blocking their access to that information.” .

[cндябеяs]

BCCI not in favour of Anti-Doping Code With the likes of Sachin tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh objecting to WADA's Anti-Doping 'whereabouts clause', the BCCI also found the code 'unreasonable' as players already have security cover. "Players can't reveal location as it's a violation of privacy", said BCCI president Shashank Manohar. http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/storypage.aspx?id=SPOEN20090103590

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BCCI rejects anti-doping clause, stands by its players Strongly backing its players, the BCCI rejected a controversial WADA anti-doping clause which makes it mandatory for cricketers to be available for out of competition testing, a decision which puts BCCI on collision course with the ICC. More...

[King]

Fair decision, to test one for a anti-doping why should they be knowing the whereabouts of players for 3 months in advance? I can't quite understand that clause. In this time and age, they should guard their whereabouts preciously. All it needs is for someone to leak that information and they will end up as a hostage.

[Jai Ho]

Dhoni probably scared to take test, I don't blame him :cantstop:

[Rajiv]

True, to heck with it..Indian Players are HUGE stars, they cherish their privacy and its too much to poke in their whereabouts and what not Forget Indian Players, is everyone else signing it

[EnterTheVoid]

Seriously, what kind of dumbass nonsense is this ? How the hell would you know what you would be doing three months in advance ? Target the real drug cheats, *cough cough*, Pakistan.

[Guest gaurav_indian]

With the likes of Sachin tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh objecting to WADA's Anti-Doping 'whereabouts clause', the BCCI also found the code 'unreasonable' as players already have security cover. "Players can't reveal location as it's a violation of privacy", said BCCI president Shashank Manohar. http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/storypage.aspx?id=SPOEN20090103590

191 countries has signed this WADA Anti Doping whereabouts close. Many top footballers and athletes has signed. Abhinav Bindra signed it 6 years ago only our star players and BCCI have problems with it? They are wasting their time and WADA's time. They are not going to change any rule. Keep banging your head BCCI this isnt ICC this is WADA. :banghead:

[Jai Ho]

191 countries has signed this WADA Anti Doping whereabouts close. Many top footballers and athletes has signed. Abhinav Bindra signed it 6 years ago only our star players and BCCI have problems with it? They are wasting their time and WADA's time. They are not going to change any rule. Keep banging your head BCCI this isnt ICC this is WADA. :banghead:

what you say? no one signs the whereabout agreement, not fifa no one as far as i know. :cantstop: