Revised Indian sports bill exempts cricketers from certain WADA rules

India's sports ministry has included a provision in the new draft of its national sports bill that will exempt Indian cricketers from following certain rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, including the whereabouts clause that the board and the players have objected to in the past.

The revised National Sports Development Bill, which was made public on Monday, includes a stipulation that the Indian board would follow ICC regulations where they clashed with WADA rules.

"In view of the BCCI's objections, we have decided to exempt cricketers from some anti-doping norms," Ajay Maken, the sports minister, said. "The ICC does not follow some WADA norms and in these cases the rules of international federation, in this case the ICC, will prevail over the WADA Code. It is not that the WADA Code will not apply to cricketers but in those cases where there is conflict, the ICC rules will prevail. It is also not an exemption to BCCI, it is to the ICC."

The ICC had wanted to implement WADA rules in full last year but the BCCI raised an objection to the 'whereabouts' clause in particular, which requires athletes and sportspeople to provide information to WADA of their availability for testing up to three months in advance. The ICC eventually decided to modify the wheareabouts clause in its own doping policy.

The original draft of the sports bill was sent back to the ministry because the cabinet of ministers, including current ICC president, and former BCCI president, Sharad Pawar, had objected to various clauses and asked for changes. Among them were the provisions on tenure limits and age limits for the Indian Olympic Association and all the National Sports Federations, but those have been retained according to the Statesman.

The specific clause on WADA was added to Section 15(1) of the bill and excludes those provisions of the WADA/ National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) code to which an international federation, like the ICC, is not subject.

"This has been done since NADA functions under the WADA code," Maken said, "and if at the international level there are certain provisions of the WADA code to which the international federation is not subject, then the logical corollary is that those provisions should not be administered by NADA on the sport of that national sport federation.

"Efforts have been made to streamline the Bill while retaining basic principles of transparency, good governance and de-control from government. Serious consideration has been given to remove the perception that the Ministry was seeking to directly interfere in sports. So, I am hopeful that the revised Bill will get cabinet's approval."