Sport - Cricket

Nothing ‘surprising’ about IPL testing

NEW DELHI: There is nothing ‘surprising’ about dope testing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It was decided in March that there would be testing, a first in India for a non-ICC event.

What is surprising, however, is dope control, which was reportedly put in place on Saturday, is being employed a month after the competition began and with a fortnight left for its closing.

It is significant that many drugs including water-based steroids get flushed out of the system within weeks of administration. Stimulants can get washed out within 24 to 48 hours.

Despite the late start and notwithstanding the near-irrelevance of the testing, an impression has been created that this is on a scale done in ICC tournaments and a testing team from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) is here.

WADA does not test `in-competition’ at all. Even in out-of-competition testing it mostly carries out requests from several agencies, mainly outsourcing the task. The ICC does not have a testing team even for its own tournaments.

Contrary to what is being made out, the ICC rules do not require WADA to do any in-competition testing. For that matter no international federation requires WADA to do testing in their competitions.

According to ICC sources, the Swedish team in India, commissioned by the IPL for testing, was from the International Doping Tests and Management (IDTM), a company based in Stockholm, which specialized in out-of-competition sample collection and other procedures related to dope control.

The IDTM has among its clients, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the International Swimming Federation (FINA) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

The surprise part in a dope-testing routine normally comes in out-of-competition testing. These are unannounced tests and by their very nature there is an element of surprise, catching athletes first thing in the morning at home or at a training venue.

In-competition random testing, whether in a multi-discipline games (normally top three or four plus random) or a championship, does provide some uncertainty since competitors are unaware till they are selected. In IPL also players would not know beforehand who is being chosen.

In the IPL, competing teams have been briefed before the tournament started about dope control procedures.

Prior to the tournament, the ICC Member Services Manager delivered general training on anti-doping and ran through the ICC anti-doping education program with the IPL venue managers and franchise representatives, mainly medical personnel.

The ICC declined an invitation to educate all the players from all the teams and offered to educate team officials who in turn could educate the players.

The IDTM has one lead Doping Control Officer who is being assisted by three Indian chaperones.

The IDTM is also expected to manage the therapeutic use exemption (TUE) requests. It is learnt that there was a delay in finalizing TUE forms and forming relevant committees. This could partly explain the delay in the start of the much-publicised anti-doping exercise in the tournament.

Players, especially young Indians with no international experience and possibly having little understanding of either the TUEs or the consequences of using an asthma inhaler or a cough syrup, could have got into trouble had testing started right at the beginning of the IPL.

The ICC which has welcomed dope testing in IPL, expects all of its Full Members to become WADA-compliant by 2009. Subsequently, IPL would also be expected to operate under the prevalent BCCI/WADA anti-doping rules.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu