ICC's suspension of whereabouts clause is right decision: Tim May

In a decision that is certain to please Indian cricketers, the International Cricket Council suspended the whereabouts clause of the World Anti-Doping Agency until the issues raised by the Indian team and other players around the world are resolved.

The clause made it mandatory for all players to keep the WADA informed of their whereabouts for each day three months in advance and the Indian players objected to it raising the issue of safety.

Several players from New Zealand and Australia had also voiced their displeasure through Federation of International Cricketers' Associations Chief Executive Tim May, who was happy to see ICC take the step.

"It is the correct decision keeping in mind the situation," May told MiD DAY from Massachusetts yesterday.

"If one set of players are not happy with the methods of dope-testing then it would not be right to just excuse them and involve the rest in the process. So, there was a need to get everyone to agree on one thing," the former Australia off-spinner said.

The ICC would meet in three months time to discuss the issue with WADA and May hoped that a programme agreeable to all would be in place by then.

"It is a long process and will certainly take time for the ICC to come to a proper conclusion. As of now, nobody can rightly predict what that conclusion would be. But this opens the doors to having a cricket-specific dope-testing method.

Something that the players would not have a problem with and then the ICC can work around it with WADA," May said.