In a shocking turn of events, Indian cricket has succumbed to the ‘doping’ sin, which has prompted the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) to intervene and take immediate action. NADA had to intervene after the Uttarakhand pacer, Rajan Kumar, was found positive for three prohibited substances.
A PTI report on January 5 revealed that NADA has suspended the left-arm pacer provisionally. It is noteworthy that this is one of the rare cases of doping in Indian cricket. The last instance happened almost seven years ago when there was a case involving the then-young batter Prithvi Shaw, who was banned for consuming Terbutaline, a substance prohibited for cricketers.
In addition to Shaw, Anshula Rao, an all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, was the one who failed the dope test in 2020 and was then banned from competitive cricket as a result.
Doping put an end to a promising career
Talking about Uttarakhand’s Rajan Kumar, his state team was playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025 last month, which has just finished. The 29-year-old was the leading wicket-taker for Uttarakhand in the tournament as he took 13 wickets in seven innings, had an excellent bowling strike rate of 8.34, and even took a four-wicket haul.
He has also played four First-Class games along with nine List-A games for the state. The Haridwar-born pacer has taken eight wickets in eight innings at the First-Class level. Besides that, he has also taken 14 wickets in the nine innings including one five-wicket haul.
Rajan Kumar has so far taken 32 wickets in 26 innings in the T20 format for Uttarakhand in domestic cricket which includes a four-wicket haul. However, a statement from Rajan Kumar is still awaited after the provisional suspension due to his positive samples.
Indian authorities were advised to implement drastic measures
Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Sports Minister of India, delivered a ‘hard-lined’ message to the officials to get rid of doping. “He urged the officials to take upon themselves an aggressive approach to deal with the sin of ‘doping’ in sports.
“SAI and NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) have been asked to conduct aggressive awareness campaigns, and if there are any lawbreakers even after that, they will have to face severe repercussions,” the sources, who are closely connected with the matter, told India Today.
With India being the host of Commonwealth Games 2030 and setting its sights on the 2036 Olympics, the pathetic doping figures have dealt a severe blow to the country’s sporting reputation.
India has been at the top of the list of countries having the most doping violators according to the testing figures released by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for three consecutive years.
Countries with the most doping violations from 2022 to 2024
Countries AAFs in 2024 AAFs (2023) AAFs (2022)
India 260 214
125
France 91 105
72
Russia
76 99
85
USA
76 66 84
Germany 54 57 54
In 2024, 260 AAF (adverse analytical findings) were detected from a total of 7,113 samples tested in India, which was the highest among the countries where at least 5000 samples were tested. The AAFs in India were 214 out of 5,606 samples tested in 2023, after 125 in 2022.
India’s doping control can be emphasized by the fact that there was a difference of 169 AAFs between India and France, the second-most AAF country (91). The difference between India and France in 2023 was 109, which indicates poor control over doping in India.