Reports | BCCI’s decision to come under NADA ignored policy, not approved by CoA

08/12/2019

According to TOI’s sources, the manner in which the BCCI agreed to come under NADA’s ambit is not in accordance with prescribed policies since the members weren’t consulted before the decision was taken. They further state that the CoA had not officially given the BCCI the go-ahead for the move.

In a surprising move on Saturday that few saw coming, the Board of Control for Cricket in India finally gave up its decade-long opposition of coming under the NADA’s ambit. In a meeting between BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, GM (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim, national sports secretary Radheshyam Julaniya and NADA director general Navin Agarwal in the city capital, the representatives of the cricketing body refused to contest any contentious issues.

Most speculate that the decision comes after young cricketer Prithvi Shaw was included in an Indian squad but was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspended from the sport. This led to the BCCI coming under a lot of flak for not having dealt the matter adequately and at the right time.

However, with the decision having been taken in a closed-door meeting between only a few representatives, the move begs the question as to why the members were not intimated that such a decision was to be taken beforehand. The Board’s procedures and by-laws itself state that the approval of the members is needed before taking such a policy-related decision.

"Why members, even the office-bearers of the BCCI were not informed about the decision. In all other issues, the office-bearers have been kept in the loop. Why not this time?” TOI reported its sources as saying.

Moreover, there was no official communication between the Supreme Court-appointed CoA and the BCCI which saw the three-member body give the Board a green light. The BCCI falls under the CoA’s purview and the committee must have ideally given permission for the policy change to take place.

“The minutes of the previous meeting were uploaded on the BCCI website. They do not contaiany details of them (COA) giving a nod to NADA compliance. In the meeting after that, the NADA details were discussed but was there an official go ahead from the CoA to do this? Did the COA members minute it?” Sources asked.

Even though according to the TOI, the CoA had asked Johri to be present at the meeting with NADA along with BCCI's anti-doping head, Abhijit Salvi, no official document was presented allowing the decision to be made.

“To that extent, yes, but were they asked to sign on the dotted line?" The sources added.