India’s star cricketers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shafali Verma have been served notices by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) after missing scheduled dope tests last year. This was also their first whereabouts failure.
Both cricketers are part of NADA’s Registered Testing Pool (RTP), and didn’t give reasons for missing their dope tests
According to a PTI report, a source said, “Notices have been issued to the concerned athletes, and the same has been intimated to the national federation (the BCCI) and the ICC.”
Meanwhile, a BCCI source informed PTI, “Yes, we have received notification from NADA on missed tests. We will check with them as to how it happened, and will take necessary steps so that such things do not happen in future.”
“Cricket is back in the Olympics and we need to adhere to all the protocols so that everything goes on smoothly,” the source added.
Athletes who are part of NADA’s RTP must regularly share their location details and stay available for dope testing during a fixed time slot every day. During that window, a doping control officer can arrive to collect samples. As per the rules, missing three tests is treated as a doping rule violation and can result in a suspension.
A total of 13 cricketers are part of NADA’s RTP for the current quarter, while the overall list includes 348 athletes from different sports. The cricket players in the pool include Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Tilak Varma and Arshdeep Singh. Abhishek Sharma and Axar Patel have also been added to the latest list, replacing Smriti Mandhana and Shreyas Iyer. In women’s cricket, Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh are also included.
Doping has been a controversial topic in cricket over the years. One of the most famous cases involved Shane Warne, who tested positive for a banned diuretic just before the 2003 World Cup. Warne said he had taken a tablet given by his mother to improve his appearance. He was later banned for one year by Cricket Australia.
Another major case happened in 2006 when Shoaib Akhtar and team-mate Mohammad Asif tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. The Pakistan Cricket Board initially banned Akhtar for two years and Asif for one year, but both suspensions were later overturned because of issues related to the testing process.
