Unplayable delivery!

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decades of resistance to come under the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) ambit was yesterday broken in a matter of minutes.

Sports Secretary Radheshyam Jhulaniya, who along with NADA DG Navin Agarwal met BCCI CEO Rahul Johri along with the Cricket Operations general manager Syed Saba Karim in New Delhi with the purpose of clearing the India women's team tours and India 'A' tours. But before the tours the sports secretary ensured the BCCI were on board to comply with NADA.

While the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), governing the BCCI, saw this coming, they are shocked that there was hardly any scope left for them to bargain.

A source privy to the developments that happened at a rapid pace, told mid-day: "There wasn't any hurry as such to agree to come under NADA as the BCCI is already in the process of holding its elections in October. They could have bargained for some time till then and then let the elected body take the call. This has happened in quite a haphazard manner."

"They [government] cannot put a gun on BCCI's head and make them agree to something like this," the source added. The BCCI's primary concern for not complying to NADA was the contentious whereabouts clause where their superstar players would have to declare details of their whereabouts for out-of-competition testing.

Under the current dope testing system, the BCCI had no problems in having their cricketers tested during practice sessions and on match days. With the BCCI now agreeing to comply with NADA, they have also accepted the whereabouts clause.

"The BCCI will have to agree to everything that is under NADA rules. The players also haven't been taken into confidence in such an event," the source said. Complying with NADA will also make the BCCI a National Sports Federation (NSF) even if it does not receive grants of R10 lakh or more from the government. However, as per a Right To Information (RTI) order in October 2018 by the then Information Commissioner of India, BCCI receives crores of rupees in tax exemptions from the government and hence the BCCI should be brought under the RTI Act.

However, according to law experts, bringing the BCCI under the RTI will be a call taken by the government despite the Law Commission of India stating that the cricket board should come under the RTI ambit as it is a 'public authority'.

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