NADA performed no tests at all on 12 out of the 25 centrally contracted Indian men’s cricketers.
While cricket came under the jurisdiction of the government-run National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in 2019, only 114 tests were conducted on Indian cricketers in the last two years.
According to information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 by The Indian Express, a total of 5,961 tests were conducted in 2021 and 2022 but just 1.91 per cent out of these tests happened on cricketers. Athletics had the highest number of tests among all sports in the country with 1,717 in total.
The report also claims that Rohit Sharma has been the most tested Indian cricketer with six visits from dope control officers. On the other hand, the likes of Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, and Cheteshwar Pujara were tested only once while Virat Kohli was not even tested for a single time during the last two years.
It is worth mentioning here that Kohli isn't the only contracted men's cricketer who was not tested for doping in 2021 and 2022. The data from RTI suggests that NADA performed no tests at all on 12 out of the 25 centrally contracted Indian men’s cricketers namely Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Srikar Bharat, and Washington Sundar.
Meanwhile, each female cricketer under contract with the BCCI has been tested during this period. India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana have been the most tested female cricketers with three tests each.
The data does not imply any kind of misconduct by Indian cricketers but it bolsters World Anti-Doping Agency’s claim that NADA was not doing enough to catch the wrong doers.
(The Indian Express Inputs)