BCCI considering legal action on WADA clause

The Indian cricket board is planning to take legal advice from Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati and former chief justice of India A S Anand on the controversial 'whereabouts' clause of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code.

"We have asked for legal advice from both Goolam Vahanvati and former chief justice A S Anand on the legal aspects of the 'whereabouts' clause of the WADA," Rajiv Shukla, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said after a working committee meeting on Thursday.

The BCCI has rejected the controversial anti-doping clause of the WADA that makes it mandatory for players to make themselves available for out of competition tests.

Eleven Indian cricketers, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, have opposed the clause and have already missed the July 31 deadline to sign the Code.

The board has strongly backed the cricketers, saying that the 'whereabouts' clause is an "invasion into the privacy of an individual".

This has put it on a collision course with the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is a signatory to WADA's anti-doping norms.

The ICC has also set up a working committee headed by Tim Kerr, chairman of ICC Anti-Doping Panel, to address the Indian players' concern on the 'whereabouts' clause.

Former India captain Anil Kumble, ex-board president Inderjit Singh Bindra, board secretary N Srinivasan and ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat are the other members of the group.