India vs Pakistan (AP photo) NEW DELHI: Ahmed Shehzad has courted controversy by accusing the Board of Control for Cricket in India of not allowing the International Cricket Council to directly conduct doping tests on Indian players. His comments came during the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 after the Indian national cricket team reached the semi-finals.Shehzad said on a Pakistani channel that India is self-managing its anti-doping controls instead of relying on the ICC’s testing system.
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He claimed that the Indian board prefers to conduct the tests itself because it does not trust outside technology. “ICC does drug test (sic) for the whole world except India. Their own board does it for them. Sir, they don’t give it to ICC; they say we have our own board to determine. Indians said we don’t trust any technology outside, we have good technology, so we would do drug test for our own players,” Shehzad said.However, international cricket is governed by strict anti-doping rules based on World Anti-Doping Agency standards. The ICC has been a signatory to the WADA Code since 2006, meaning players around the world are subject to strict testing rules.The ICC conducts in-competition and out-of-competition testing, often without prior notice. Specially trained officers collect blood or urine samples, which are divided into two parts called “A” and “B” samples and tested in WADA-accredited laboratories. If the first sample shows a banned substance, the player is temporarily suspended and can request a second sample to be tested. If the result is upheld, the player could face a lengthy ban from cricket.Meanwhile, BCCI’s anti-doping system operates under the National Anti-Doping Agency, which the board joined in 2019. As NADA also adheres to WADA rules, Indian players are still tested according to the same global anti-doping standards used in international sports.
