BCCI approaches Advocate-General on WADA clause

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has written to Attorney-General Goolam E Vahanvati and former Chief Justice A S Anand to get clarity on the controversial "whereabouts" clause in WADA'S Anti-Doping Code that has been opposed by top cricketers.

"We have written to both Vahanvati and former Chief Justice A S Anand," Finance Committee chairman Rajiv Shukla said after the BCCI's Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on Thursday.

The Board, which has supported the players' stand that this clause infringes on their privacy, had declared after its Emergency Working Committee meeting earlier this month that the right to privacy is a fundamental right enjoyed by every Indian that cannot be taken away.

However, the Indian Government is a signatory to the WADA Anti-Doping Code and apparently fresh doubts have cropped up within the BCCI whether this stand is indeed correct.

"The clause with regards to whereabouts is unreasonable", BCCI president Shashank Manohar had said after the August 2 meeting of its Working Committee.

According to sources, the BCCI is also trying to get clarity whether a government agency can force them to include the clause in the annual contracts it signs with its players.

Eleven 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.