Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Anshula Rao becomes first woman cricketer to get dope ban

Anshula Rao created history for all the wrong reasons, as she became the first women cricketer to be handed a four-year ban by the panel of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing a dope test on June 28. Rao is an allrounder who plays for Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit. She was last seen playing cricket in the under-23 T20 tournament hosted by BCCI.

This is not the first time for Rao, who was also found guilty of consuming a banned anabolic steroid ’19- Norandrosterone. She was found guilty of using the drug on March 14 at Baroda in the year 2020. The allrounder failed to give a proper explanation as to how the drug substance entered her body.

Apparently, two samples were sent to an accredited laboratory in Belgium that found a substance that ideally should not have been found in her sample test. In her defense, she shared that the unfair charge of Euro 2400 for the analysis of B Sample Analysis was too much for her bear, as reported by The Times of India.

Anshula Rao is at fault feels ADDP advocate Gaurang Kanth

Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) earlier stated that the Madhya Pradesh allrounder had consumed the drug purposefully and knowingly. Now, the ADDP chaired lawyer Gaurang Kanth feels it is the responsibility of an athlete to look after their bodies and not consume any drugs that enhance the players to perform well unnecessarily. His sentiments were echoed by ADDP members Dr. Rana Chengappa and sportsman Akhil Kumar too.

The panel though criticized NADA for not helping out Rao financially as the allrounder felt the charge for her B Sample Analysis was way too exorbitant and out of her reach. The ADDP was also not in full support of Rao as she failed to give a valid explanation to the NADA on how the drug substance entered her body.

While handing out a strict four-year ban to Rao, the panel concluded that the unknown drug substance should ideally have not found in the first place. What made the Madhya Pradesh allrounder’s case even weaker was her failure to given an elaborated explanation to the panel on why she was taking a banned substance.