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New Delhi: Ahead of the Indian cricket board’s meeting with the International Cricket Council (ICC) Sunday to sort out the players’ concerns over anti-doping norms, the Federation of International Cricketer’s Association (FICA) has made it clear that ICC, as things stand, cannot exempt any country from the mandatory WADA code.
“If the whereabouts provisions do not apply to all players from all countries then it should not be applied at all,” FICA chief executive officer (CEO)Tim May told IANS.
“FICA does not represent Indian players and, therefore, does not have access to their detailed concerns.
“Nonetheless, players from other countries do have concerns with the system – ranging from the administrational burden of the system and various privacy issues,” May said.
May, a former Australian off-spinner, said FICA and its players have reluctantly accepted the WADA code.
“ICC need to adopt these measures — they are mandatory parts of the WADA code — and at present it does not have the ability to exclude mandatory WADA provisions from its code.”
“The concerns with these provisions is not confined to cricket. Numerous sports administrators and player associations have concerns with the system and these concerns are being relayed to WADA.”
May said that WADA will meet some international player’s associations in early September to discuss this matter further.
The new Wada code requires players to inform the ICC three months in advance of a location and time that they will be available each day for three hours (between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.) in that quarter for testing.
There are 11 Indian cricketers in the International Registered Testing Pool of the ICC and they have missed the July 31 deadline for submitting the information.
Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag, who are in the testing pool, are expected to attend a meeting between the ICC and BCCI Sunday.
ICC’s legal expert Iain Higgins is expected to adress the players’ concerns over the ‘whereabouts’ clause.