The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come under the ambit of National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), just like other sports federations with the country. While the Indian cricket board had suggested that it would only follow NADA on a trial basis, such a request has been turned down, with the Union Sports Secretary RS Julaniya refusing to entertain the right to say no to dope tests.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is itself a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code and had been keen to see this ongoing conflict between the BCCI and NADA being resolved. "BCCI does not have discretion to say no. All are same, everyone has to follow the same rules," the Sports Secretary said on Friday. Jhulaniya revealed that the board had given it to them in writing that they would follow the anti-doping norms issues by NADA.

"All cricketers will now be tested by NADA," Jhulaniya told PTI. “The BCCI raised three issues before us about the quality of the dope testing kits, competence of pathologists and sample collection. We assured them that whatever facilities they want, we will provide but there will be some charge for it. BCCI is no different from others.”

The whole subject gained momentum after a recent incident where Prithvi Shaw was handed an 8-month suspension for using a banned substance. BCCI had come under the line of fire for the manner in which Shaw was charged with a doping violation. Shaw had "inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance, which can be commonly found in cough syrups".

A gap was two months was observed between the date of sample collection and the release of the report from the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL).

The entire subject then came into the notice of WADA - who then pushed the ICC to make the relationship between the BCCI and NADA more streamlined. On March 18 this year, the BCCI had submitted a proposal to work with NADA for six months on a trial basis but the idea was rejected by the Sports Ministry - who suggested that the rules have to be the same for all of the sporting bodies in the country.

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, on Friday, reportedly met the sports ministry officials, although the meeting's prime focus was to get clearance for the South Africa A and women's teams' tours of India, having not got the clearance for the visiting players' visas.