ICC briefs Pak, Lanka cricketers on new WADA anti-doping code

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has briefed Sri Lankan and Pakistani players on the additional responsibilities under the new WADA Anti-Doping Code which came into effect on the first day of the running year.

Lorinda Rugless, ICC's Anti-Doping and Member Services Manager, conducted the briefing sessions which were also attended by the teams' backroom staff and officials.

The new code has several changes from the ICC's previous anti-doping regulations, including adoption of International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP), made up of the leading players from each of the top eight ranked ODI teams.

The Pakistan team were briefed in Lahore on Friday, while the Sri Lanka team were briefed on additional responsibilities for those of it's players selected in the IRTP yesterday in Karachi, an ICC release said today.

Those cricketers selected in the IRTP are required to provide additional information about their whereabouts throughout the year in order to help the ICC in implementing an effective out-of-competition testing programme in line with the requirements of the WADA Code 2009.

"While it remains the responsibility of ICC Member Boards, as it has always been, to educate their cricketers about general matters of anti-doping and the application of the ICC Anti-Doping Code 2009, these session and others that will follow are aimed at highlighting the key changes to the ICC Anti-Doping Code (2009) and educating those players who have been selected in the IRTP about their additional obligations," Rugless said.

"Sessions like this are a chance for everyone to hear firsthand what is expected of them and to ask questions. There was a good, healthy dialogue and hopefully all those present will have found it to be a useful exercise," she added.

The highest governing body of cricket, which became a signatory of WADA in July 2006, will brief the leading international players, selected in the IRTP, in the next two months.