All players must support WADA - sports minister

The Indian sports minister MS Gill has said all national sports bodies and players should support the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and adhere to its codes. On Sunday the BCCI rejected the anti-doping code in its present form where the players are required to submit information of their whereabouts for three months at a stretch, calling it a "violation of privacy".

"We have accepted WADA regulatory testing and we adhere to it," Gill said. "Sportspersons should be clear in one thing that it is not getting into someone's life." The sports ministry has a WADA-accredited National Dope Testing Laboratory in Delhi and Gill said it was proud to be associated with the global independent anti-doping watchdog.

"We have set up a dope testing laboratory next to Nehru Stadium and now Sweden is also sending samples of their players for testing."

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 BCCI plans to ask the ICC to walk out of the WADA umbrella and develop a cricket-specific anti-doping code.

The ICC, meanwhile, has asked other national boards and their players who have already signed up, to maintain status quo till the ICC board takes a decision.