WADA-ICC

WADA starts process to make ICC non-complaint over BCCI'S refusal

by Sabi Hussain • Published on

The development may hurt the ICC's ambitions to see cricket included in the future Olympics and Asian Games. © Getty

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) failure to convince one of its member boards - the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) - to allow dope testing of its cricketers by the country's anti-doping watchdog, NADA, has prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to set in motion the process to make the ICC noncompliant to its revised 'Code' for signatories, which came into effect in April this year.

The WADA had set October 4 as the deadline for the ICC to convince the BCCI to make its cricketers available to the NADA for sample collection. Since the ICC failed to adhere to the cut-off date, WADA has decided to act.

WADA, in an email communication with TOI, informed on Tuesday that the ICC's case will be referred to its independent 'Compliance Review Committee' (CRC), which is expected to meet in Lausanne early next year.

"As per the process described in Wada's 'International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories 2018', the case will now be referred to the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC), which will discuss it at its first in-person meeting of 2019," wrote Maggie Durand, head of WADA's media communications.

It's been learnt that the WADA's Taskforce has already discussed the ICC case with the CRC at length. The Taskforce is an internal, multi-departmental group responsible for addressing Code compliance-related matters.

After the review of the matter by the CRC, the ICC's non-compliance case will be referred to the WADA's all-powerful Executive Committee, which can recommend the disaffiliation of the ICC as its member nation.

It's important to mention here that while the development may hurt the ICC's ambitions to see cricket included in the future Olympics and Asian Games, it will in no way deter ICC from hosting its big-ticket events like the proposed Test Championships, limited-overs and T20 World Cups and the Champions Trophy, among other cash-rich tournaments.

Recently, ICC CEO Dave Richardson had told TOI that efforts have been made to get the BCCI adhere to the WADA norms and reach a middleground with the NADA to see the cricket's inclusion in the Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. However, in the case of the ICC becoming non-compliant, such ambitions won't see the light of the day.

If ICC gets disaffiliated by WADA in the future, cricket's global governing body will have 21 days from the receipt of the notice from WADA to challenge the decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne.

© TNN