NADA collects players samples during the Delhi-Hyderabad Ranji Trophy fixture

The Round 03 of the 2019-20 edition of the Ranji Trophy kickstarted on Christmas Day with another round of four-day games being played across the length and breadth of the country. In the Round 03 Elite Group A & B encounter, Delhi hosted Hyderabad at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in the national capital.

After having comprehensively lost their previous fixture against Andhra, this home fixture is very crucial for the home side, if they are to address their fledgeling campaign, and with Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma added into the squad, it was expected to be an improved performance from Delhi.

The batsmen-led by Shikhar Dhawan safely negotiated the first session, post which, the officials of the National Anti-Doping Agency [NADA] checked in at the erstwhile Feroz Shah Kotla for ‘competition’ testing of cricketers playing the Ranji Trophy league fixture at the venue- Delhi and Hyderabad. The two representatives of the National Anti-Doping Agency- a Dope control officer and Chaperone- collected samples of the players during the lunch-time on day 01.

“NADA officials came for random testing. As per our knowledge, they will be randomly selecting one player each from either side. Today, Hyderabad opener Tanmay Agarwal and Delhi opener Kunal Chandela gave their urine samples,” a senior DDCA official was quoted as saying by the Times of India [TOI].

Shikhar Dhawan leads the Delhi batting unit on Day 01

The Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] came under NADA this season, and it has been learned that two cricketers will be randomly tested in the matches they select. “They are supposed to collect samples in the U-19, U-23 and women’s matches also,” a senior BCCI official said. 

With the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) currently under suspension from the WADA, the NADA is currently having its samples tested from the accredited laboratory in Doha.

Coming back to the fixture between Delhi and Hyderabad, southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, who is coming off an injury lay-off, showed just why class is permanent, as he racked up an unbeaten 137 off 198 balls, to spearhead the Delhi batting-unit to a commanding 6-269 at the end of day 01, and will be looking to cash-in on the start and convert it into a really big score.

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