The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has started the process to make the ICC non-compliant with its revised code for signatories following the BCCI’s refusal to subject its cricketers to dope testing by India’s NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency).
WADA had allowed a deadline of October 4 for the ICC to convince BCCI to make its cricketers available to NADA for dope testing. Following the failure of the governing body to do so, WADA has now set in motion the process to make ICC non-compliant with its code.
According to an email communication reported in the Times of India, WADA will refer ICC’s case to its independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) which is due to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland in the early part of 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,” WADA head of communications Maggie Durand wrote in the email.
BCCI has refused to allow it cricketers to be subjected to dope tests.
Once the CRC has reviewed the case, it will be referred to WADA’S Executive Committee which has the power to recommend disaffiliation of the ICC.
WADA’s move to make the ICC non-compliant could have huge repercussions for the governing body’s hopes of taking the sport to the Olympics.
The ICC has been championing cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics but those doors could be closed permanently should the global body fail to comply with WADA’s code.