By IANS,
New Delhi: Former India captain Anil Kumble and ex-board president Inderjit Singh Bindra were Thursday selected by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in its five-member International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP) working group to resolve Indian players’ concern on World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) ‘whereabouts’ clause.
The group will be chaired by Tim Kerr, chairman of ICC Anti-Doping Panel, and ICC chief-executive Haroon Lorgat and Indian cricket board’s secretary N. Srinivasan are the other members of the group. Kumble is also a member of WADA’s Athlete Committee while Bindra is the principal advisor of the ICC.
The group will work to resolve the impasse and will report back to the ICC Board at the earliest possible opportunity.
The group has been formed by Lorgat to resolve the concerns the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has raised about the implementation of the ‘whereabouts’ requirements of those elite international players selected in the IRTP, so that such players are able to comply in full.
Lorgat said: “All of us – the ICC and its members including India – are committed to a zero-tolerance approach in the area of anti-doping but what we have to do is to satisfy the India players on the practical implementation of the new WADA rules on ‘whereabouts’.
“We will all work together and engage with WADA to resolve the concerns so that the India players can fully comply with their obligations under the ICC Anti-Doping Code.”
WADA will also be invited to send a representative to give independent guidance and advice, but its representative will not be on the IRTP working group.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar said that the Indian board is a willing partner in this process because the objectives of ICC and BCCI are identical regarding cricket as a clean and drug-free sport.
The constitution of the IRTP working group follows the BCCI’s decision that it would not require its players to file ‘whereabouts’ information necessary under the terms of the ICC Anti-Doping Code.