Dope testing code does not infringe players' privacy: Gill

Sports Minister MS Gill today opposed the BCCI stance on the 'Whereabouts Clause' of the World Anti-Doping Agency and said the cricketers should fall in line without cribbing. Ifs and Buts | At loggerheads

Sports Minister M S Gill on Monday opposed the BCCI stance on the 'Whereabouts Clause' of the World Anti-Doping Agency and said the cricketers should fall in line without cribbing.

HT Image

Dismissing the claim that the clause, which requires players to inform their whereabouts three months in advance for out-of-competition testing, was an infringement on their privacy, Gill said that was not the case.

"We have accepted WADA regulatory testing and we adhere to it. Sportsperson should be clear in one thing that it is not getting into someone's life," Gill told reporters after the state sports ministers' conference in New Delhi.

The voice of dissent among the cricketers seemed to have surprised the minister who pointed out that most of the sportspersons across the world have already signed it.

"All sportsperson should adhere to it and happily follow it as so many sports federations and players are following it," Gill said.

The whereabouts clause of the WADA code has ruffled many feathers in the Capital with the BCCI convening an emergency working committee meeting in Mumbai on Sunday, attended by India captain MS Dhoni and senior players Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.