The Board of Cricket Control in India, today suspended a cricketer from Punjab named Abhishek Gupta for doping violation. An official release of the BCCI stated that the cricketer had inadvertently consumed the prohibited substance, which is found in cough syrups. He was tested during with his urine samples during a domestic competition in January 2018 and found Terbutaline, which has been one of the prohibited drugs in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List of Substances.

Abhishek clarified that he consumed the medicine to treat an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI) and not as a performance-enhancing drug. The cricket board further said, "Having considered all of the evidence and taken expert external advice, the BCCI has accepted Mr. Gupta's explanation of the cause of his ADRV, and on that basis has agreed that a period of ineligibility of eight months should apply, together with disqualification of certain results."

“Under BCCI ADR Article 10.10.3, Mr. Gupta is entitled to a full credit against that period of ineligibility for the provisional suspension that he has been serving since 18th April 2018.  In addition, because Mr. Gupta promptly admitted his ADRV upon being confronted with it by the BCCI, there is discretion under BCCI ADR Article 10.10.2 to back-date the start of the period of Ineligibility to the date of sample collection (15th January 2018). The eight-month period of Ineligibility will, therefore, be deemed to have started to run on 15th January 2018, so that it will end at midnight on 14th September 2018,” the release stated on a concluding note.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 07, 2018 06:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).