© Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/ AFP
Five centrally-contracted Indian cricketers – Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma – have been issued notices by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited “password glitch” as the reason for delay.
These five players are part of the 110-strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP).
Speaking to PTI, NADA director general Navin Agarwal confirmed the BCCI had sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players’ failure to submit the whereabouts, because in some cases the boards or federations feed such information to NADA on the players’ behalf.
“There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti-Doping Administration & Management Systems) software,” Agarwal said. “Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf.
“Now athletes in some discipline aren’t educated enough or do not have access to the internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up form. They use the assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts.
“Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don’t have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts.”
Agarwal further said the BCCI gave a “reasonable” explanation for not filing the five cricketers’ whereabouts, which NADA will discuss.
“Well, they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken,” Agarwal said. “They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved.
“The BCCI’s explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here.”
While India has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti-Doping Rule Violation, which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo