The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), and the BCCI have been engaged in a war of words over the current anti-doping programme undertaken by the BCCI. Unlike other national governing bodies for sport in India, the BCCI adopts self-regulated anti–doping rules, which are aligned to the standards prescribed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
In April 2017, WADA conducted an audit of NADA’s anti-doping programme in India. The results of the audit established that the BCCI neither recognises the authority of NADA nor does it permit NADA to implement any anti-doping regime in cricket in India. Under the WADA Code, NADA is endowed with "testing authority" over the country's athletes, including cricketers, who are nationals, residents, licence-holders or members of sport organisations in India or who are present in India. The WADA Code is the core document that harmonises anti-doping policies, rules and regulations within sport organisations and among public authorities around the world. The WADA Code was first adopted in 2003, took effect in 2004, and was then amended on January 1, 2009.
The BCCI emphasized on the fact that it already has a robust dope testing mechanism which is employed for both, during competitions and out-of-competitions, and the testing of samples collected by International Doping Tests and Management (IDTM) is already being done at a WADA accredited laboratory under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. However, it is pertinent to note that NADA does not recognise the IDTM. In addition, the BCCI has also contended that it is not a ‘National Sports Federation’, and therefore does not need to meet NADA requirements.
Further, the BCCI and the players have repeatedly voiced their concerns about the ‘whereabouts’ clause as part of the WADA Code which required the players detail their whereabouts for an hour between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm every day for three months to allow random out-of-competition testing.
The players, who voiced their objections said they regarded the impugned clause as impractical and had informed the Indian officials of their reluctance to sign the code. In addition to this, the Indian cricketers believed that the impugned clause invaded their privacy and compromised their security.
The WADA, however has conveyed to the Indian Government in writing, that failure on part of the BCCI to abide by the dope-testing regulations as laid down by the WADA will result in the NADA losing its affiliation with the WADA, which could affect Indian sport's fight against doping and also negatively impact its participation in global sporting events. This is because India would then be left with no WADA-accredited agency to test its athletes. This will have a severe effect on the verification and procedural aspects of dope-testing of Indian sportsmen. The ICC, being a signatory of the WADA Code and the BCCI, as an ICC member, must essentially be covered by it, thus giving NADA the authority to dope-test the Indian cricketers.
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