Treat cricketers differently - Yuvraj

Yuvraj Singh has hit back at the criticism over the Indian cricketers' decision to reject the World Anti Doping Agency's regulations concerning drug testing, asking for cricketers to be treated differently from other sportsmen. "Their sports and our sport is different," he told news channel CNN-IBN. "We play more and we get very little time with our families and I feel we are travelling more. We are playing a lot of time in a year and we should be given more space, with due respect to other sports."

Indian cricketers have raised concerns that the code's 'whereabouts' clause will require them to divulge information that could violate privacy and threaten their security. However, several top Indian athletes previously tested by WADA have said the code does not infringe on privacy. The Indian sports minister MS Gill endorsed the view, saying all national sports bodies and players should support the WADA and adhere to its regulations. The BCCI plans to ask the ICC to walk out of the WADA umbrella and develop a cricket-specific anti-doping code, but cricket's governing body is unlikely to support such a suggestion.

The extensive travelling, Yuvraj said, gave India's cricketers too few days to spend at home each year. "After nine months of playing, we come home for just ten days," he said. "We don't want somebody to intrude upon our privacy for dope tests during that small period. We have put out our points in front of the BCCI and they will speak to the ICC"

The ICC agrees that most of the players' concerns are genuine and hope to take them up with WADA when the norms are reviewed this year-end.The ICC has proposed various ways forward. It has said that players need not fill up the whereabouts forms themselves but can do so through a nodal official nominated by their home boards. The ICC has also promised that its testing programme will be reasonable and conducted around matches, and not on holidays or when players are on vacation. Besides, only two ICC officials, who will be bound by stringent confidentiality agreements, will have access at any point if time to players' whereabouts.

The ICC cannot let them participate in any match that is organised under its umbrella. The Indian players have already missed the July 31 deadline for filing the whereabouts information for the next quarter and face one 'strike' against their name .

The BCCI will find itself in a difficult position if its players continue to refuse to abide by the code because the Indian board was part of the unanimous ICC resolution last year to adopt these new anti-doping norms. However, BCCI is hoping that it can work out a mutually acceptable solution with the ICC on this issue. One thorny issue that the Indian board confronts is that of penalties for Indian players who have missed the whereabouts information filing deadline. The BCCI is keen that its players should not be punished as it feels their concerns are genuine.