BCCI tries out NADA net

Mumbai, March 18  

BCCI said it will work with the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for the next six months, a major climbdown from its previous position of not adhering to the global anti-doping guidelines. The decision, taken by the top BCCI office-bearers and Committee of Administrators (CoA) after a meeting with the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar, came with its share of riders.

“It will be a six-month tripartite agreement between ICC, BCCI and NADA wherein the samples of our registered pool of players will be going to the National Dope Testing Labaratory (NDTL) through NADA, unlike now, when Sweden-based firm does the sample collection. If we are not convinced, we will not renew the agreement,” a senior BCCI official said. The board has not yet intimated NADA about its stand. “I will only comment when I receive any written confirmation. I have not yet been officially intimated,” NADA Director General Navin Agarwal said.

The other discussion was regarding $22 million tax waiver for future global meets and BCCI told Manohar about its payment plan. 

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had clearly told ICC that BCCI has to come under NADA’s ambit so that the world body remains compliant and the matter was intimated to BCCI during the board meeting in Dubai.

Accordingly, BCCI decided to come under NADA with a rider that its own chaperons will be collecting the urine samples and it will be handed over to the NADA. “We maintained that we have no faith in NADA’s Dope Control Officers (DCOs). There has been too many examples of inefficient handling of samples by NADA DCOs. Here we are talking about some of the biggest names in Indian sport like Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. We can’t blindly trust them,” the official said.

In order to remain WADA-compliant, a national sports federation needs to at least provide 10 percent of the samples for testing. “We would be providing samples as per mandatory minimum requirement, which is 10 percent. It would include top national cricketers and a lot of first-class cricketers,” he said.

Tax waiver

The second item on the agenda was regarding Rs 150 crore tax waiver which included the outstanding payment for the 2016 World T20 as well as the two future global meets — 2021 World T20 and 2023 ICC ODI tournament. It is learnt that BCCI has apprised Manohar as to how they plan to make the tax waiver payments in case the government maintains its current position of no tax waiver for global sporting events. “There is an outstanding amount in this $22 million which pertains to the non-waiver for the 2016 World T20 in India. We have assured that moment new government is formed, we will request them for a waiver,” the official informed.

This, according to BCCI brass, gives them an opportunity to strike a deal with its broadcasters as well as sponsors to carry the remaining tax burden. 

No political advertisement

There was a CoA meeting that followed the deliberations with ICC. It is learnt that the CoA rejected IPL broadcaster Star Sports’ request of allowing political advertisement during the breaks of the matches. “Yes, there was a request from Star Sports but it was decided that no political advertisement will be allowed as it is election time. We understand that broadcasters want to increase their revenue but this is a policy decision that we have taken,” a BCCI official said. — PTI

Paid $1.6m compensation to BCCI: PCB

Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has paid BCCI approximately $1.6 million as compensation after losing the case it filed against BCCI for allegedly not honouring a bilateral agreement, PCB chairman Ehsan Mani claimed. PCB had filed a compensation case against BCCI last year before the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee, demanding around $70 million. ICC dismissed it and asked PCB to compensate the legal cost to BCCI. “We incurred cost of around $2.2 million on the compensation case which we lost,” Mani said. “The ICC committee did accept that Pakistan had a case and that is why the damages/cost we had to pay to the Indian board was around $1.6 million,” Mani said. — PTI