New Delhi: Yusuf Pathan's "inadvertent" violation was the lone blot on Indian cricket's doping record last year, a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report has revealed after a scrutiny of 275 samples by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
While the WADA report does not name anyone, the player in question is former India player Yusuf, who was handed a retrospective ban of five months by the BCCI, that ended before this year's Indian Premier League.
According to the BCCI statement issued back then, Pathan senior had "inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance commonly found in cough syrups".
Yusuf's backdated suspension was from August 15, 2017, to January 14, 2018.
While Yusuf's was the only Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF), there were also a couple of Atypical Findings (ATF), which suggest that there must have been some suspicion about the urine sample of two players.
Whether there are any foreign players among the two in the ATF category couldn't be ascertained.
According to the WADA report, out of the 275 samples tested during 2017, 233 were In Competition (IC) testing while 42 were Out of Competition (OOC).
In 2016, it was former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who had tested positive during the IPL, but the BCCI had then procured a backdated TUE (Thereaputic Use Exemption) certificate for the player and the case was closed.
In 2018, there has been one positive dope test and that is of first class cricketer from Punjab, Abhishek Gupta, who is currently serving his suspension.
The BCCI does not come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and its testing is done by Sweden's International Doping Test & Management.
However, in the WADA list, it is reported that NADA had conducted 10 IC tests in 2017.
While NADA Deputy General Naveen Agarwal was unavailable for a comment, the tests were probably done in tournaments not recognised by the BCCI.
The world cricket also had a nearly dope free year with 389 cricketers being tested by the International Cricket Council with only one positive result - that of Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Shahzad.
Among 389, there were 149 IC testing and 214 OOC, besides 26 blood sample collection.
