WADA claims Rohit Sharma to be most tested Indian cricketer for doping
As per recent data, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found that India has not conducted enough dope tests on the nation’s athletes in 2021 and 2022.
Notably, Cricket fell under the jurisdiction of the government-run anti-doping agency, NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) in August 2019. Government authorities then said that all cricketers would be tested by NADA. Following, BCCI was no different from other federations, putting an end to years of defiance from the cricket board.
As per the information obtained by The Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005, NADA conducted a total of 5,961 tests in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Out of 5,961 tests conducted, only 114 were conducted on cricketers. Meanwhile, athletics had the highest number of tests (1,717) among all sports in the country.
During the two years, India Test captain Rohit Sharma was the most tested Indian cricketer. The dope control officers visiting him six times. Meanwhile, seven players were tested only once, including the likes of Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, and Cheteshwar Pujara.
12 BCCI contracted cricketers including Kohli were not tested in last two years
The data from RTI also indicated that NADA performed no tests at all on 12 out of the 25 players. Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Srikar Bharat, and Washington Sundar are among the cricketers who have not been tested.
Meanwhile, every player in the women’s national cricket team during this period was subject to the process at least once. Notably, India captain and vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana tested the maximum number of times, which is thrice each. Notably, the RTI data does not imply any misconduct on the part of the Indian cricketers. However, it bolsters the World Anti-Doping Agency’s claim that NADA was not doing enough to catch potential lawbreakers.
