Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, and KL Rahul have received been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts. However, BCCI has reported that the delay has happened due to a “password glitch”.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has explained the reason behind the players of the five NRTP players’.

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Agarwal explained, “There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Now athletes in some disciplines aren’t educated enough or do not have access to the internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up form. They use assistance of their concerned federations.”

He further explained, “Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don’t have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts. Well, they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. “

While the country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

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A BCCI veteran, who has been monitoring the cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

He had asked, “This was a lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. If the cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing passwords, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who’s responsible.”