Ravindra Jadeja is the most tested Indian cricketer for doping this year as he has given the samples thrice between January and May, according to data released by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
In total, 55 cricketers (male and female, 58 samples) underwent dope testing in the first five months of this year, with more than half of the samples taken ‘Out Of Competition’ (OOC), as per a recent list shared by NADA on its website.
The data suggests that the number of samples collected from cricketers this year is way more than what it was in 2021 and 2022. As per the data, only 114 tests were conducted on Indian cricketers in the last two years.
India skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli were not tested during the first five months of 2023.
Hardik Pandya, who has been leading the T20I side for a while now, underwent one test — an ‘Out Of Competition’ (OOC) urine sample in April.
In 2021 and 2022, Rohit was the most tested Indian cricketer with a total of six visits from dope control officers. On the other hand, Kohli was not even tested for a single time during the last two years.
In the first five months of this year, only two women cricketers — India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana — were tested once each — out-of-competition urine samples collected in Mumbai on 12 January.
Around 20 samples were taken in competition, most of them likely during the Indian Premier League.
There were seven blood samples out of the 58, all the remaining being urine.
All of Jadeja’s three samples were of urine and taken out of competition on 19 February, 26 March and 26 April.
Thangarasu Natarajan underwent two tests, one urine and one blood — both on 27 April.
Blood testing allows the detection of additional substances that in some cases may not be able to be found in urine.
Moreover, blood samples allow the use of longitudinal data collection, often called the athlete’s biological passport.
Longitudinal data collection monitors certain biomarkers over time to detect the use of performance-enhancing substances and/or methods.
Other leading Indian cricketers who underwent dope tests from January to May this year include Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ambati Rayudu, Piyush Chawla and Manish Pandey.
Some of the overseas players who underwent dope tests were David Wiese, David Miller, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, David Warner, Rashid Khan, David Willey, Trent Boult, Marcus Stoinis, Mark Wood, Adam Zampa, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Jofra Archer.
All the tests on foreign players were carried out during the IPL 2023 season, most of them urine samples but a few provided blood samples as well.
(With PTI Inputs)
