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The BCCI-ICC confrontation is on

Special Correspondent

At best the ICC can continue to discuss the matter with the WADA just like many federations
Even FIFA has not rejected the 2009 ‘whereabouts’ rules outright as is being made out

NEW DELHI: Whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India likes it or not, Sunday’s decision to side with the players on the ‘whereabouts’ controversy has set up a ‘confrontation’ with the International Cricket Council (ICC).

What could be the implications for the Board and the players in this stand-off with the ICC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)?

The Board could get away with a fine if the ICC considers that the former’s refusal to fulfil its obligations would amount to a breach of the ICC anti-doping code (2009).

There is no provision in the ICC code to suspend a member unit from competitions for such an offence. It is a moot point what course of action, if any, the ICC would adopt since precedents suggest that willy-nilly it invariably bows to the diktats of the Indian Board.

Filing failure

The players who are in the International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP) run the risk of getting one ‘filing failure’ against their names. A combination of failures and ‘missed tests’ can lead to a ‘violation’ that could result in a suspension of up to two years.

Can the ICC back out of its code or make a concession to allow its IRTP players keep their ‘whereabouts’ confidential? That would amount to taking the WADA head on.

For an international federation that signed up the WADA Code only in 2006 and which was placed in the non-compliant list last year, it would be a foolish step.

Of particular relevance would be ICC’s attempt to get into the Olympics programme for which Code-compliance is a must.

The ICC regained provisional recognition of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) only in December 2007 after a gap of more than 100 years.

At best the ICC can continue to discuss the matter with the WADA just like many federations, most notably the International Football Federation (FIFA), are doing.

Even FIFA has not rejected the 2009 ‘whereabouts’ rules outright as is being made out. It only reduced the number of players in the IRTP.

Review

WADA is expected to review the ‘whereabouts’ clause including FIFA’s position at the end of the year.

It is up to the international federation concerned to pick its players/athletes in the IRTP list.

Perhaps, the Board has set some sort of a record by being the first National federation that has, by implication, rejected a clause in the Code, which has been accepted by its international body.

The argument of the Board President that the clause violated the Indian Constitution is interesting since the Government of India is a signatory to the UNESCO Convention that accepts the Code, is a stakeholder in WADA, is a party to the Code, and has formed the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), which in turn has accepted the WADA Code. NADA also has its own code that includes the ‘whereabouts’ clause.

The ‘whereabouts’ rules are nothing new in anti-doping parlance. They were there in the 2003 version of the WADA Code also.

Many international federations have been following them; many others were not fully compliant.

Many federations also had rules to deal with ‘missed tests’ even prior to the Code that came into effect in 2004.

The IAAF, for example, had them since 1997.

Examples

England international and Manchester United’s defender Rio Ferdinand and Beijing Olympic Games women’s 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu, also of Britain, and Greek athletes Kostadinos Kenteris and Eketerina Thanou are among those sportspersons who had served suspensions for ‘missed tests’.

National federations and individual athletes are not expected to accept or sign the Code; they are automatically bound by the Code the moment the concerned international federation signs up.

Thus, there should be no question of the Board or the Indian cricketers signing or not accepting the Code.

Unlike the widespread belief that WADA wants to monitor a player 24 hours a day for 365 days a year, the rule simply seeks an athlete’s ‘whereabouts’ during a one-hour slot every day between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. He or she is free to be anywhere for 23 hours a day.

If the athlete cannot provide exact information when filing the form he can indicate the best location he expects to be in a quarter and then update that information.

Updating can be done by text-messaging and e-mail.

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