Professional Cricketers Association welcomes ICC's new doping code

The Professional Cricketers Association has given warm approval to India's successful campaign to force the International Cricket Council to adopt a less stringent anti-doping code, which removes the need for players to be available for testing on a daily basis when away from the game. The ICC has abandoned attempts to compel players to advise of their whereabouts for at least an hour of every day after India refused to comply with the code, with top Indian players such as Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni complaining it put their privacy and security at risk. Some Indian players routinely employ security advisers and keep their whereabouts secret both to escape fanatical supporters and because of the risk of terrorism. Under cricket's proposed code, a maximum of 11 top-ranked one-day cricketers in each nation would now be placed in a national player pool and would only need to provide "cricket whereabouts information" rather than divulge their personal whereabouts. Angus Porter, the PCA's chief executive, supported the new code, a draft of which has now been delivered to the major international nations for approval. "The PCA supports the new proposals which we think are adequate and sensible and which suit the needs of cricket," he said. Under the most rigorous guidelines imposed on sports such as athletics by Wada, the world anti-doping agency, athletes must provide written notice 90 days in advance of where they will be on any given day – the so-called "whereabouts" clause. Cricket originally adopted those guidelines, threatening suspension if a player missed three checks in a 90-day period. That necessity will now only be enforced on cricketers with long-term injuries or past violations of the anti-doping code, who will be placed on a separate register. The ICC now holds the view that players can be successfully monitored within competition, as the burden of international cricket means that they are available for the vast majority of the year, and that distinctions between different sports must be recognized if anti-doping legislation is to be smoothly implemented. An ICC spokesman dismissed suggestions that Wada is unhappy about the watered-down nature of cricket's anti-doping code, stating that it had been drawn up with Wada's full involvement and had been fully endorsed. The spokesman also dismissed speculation that cricket's ambitions to be included in the Olympic Games could also be undermined by the failure to adopt out-of-competition testing.