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The ‘whereabouts’ clause necessitates, among other things, athletes under the dope-testing umbrella to provide information about their whereabouts for a fixed one-hour timeframe every day between 6.00 am and 11.00 pm on a quarterly basis for a 12-month period to facilitate out-of-competition testing, a requirement for all signatories of the WADA’s anti-doping code.

India’s cricketers had cited intrusion of their privacy and security fears for not abiding by the contentious clause, a move in which they had the support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Representatives of the BCCI, led by secretary N Srinivasan, and the International Cricket Council met with WADA’s David Howman in Dubai last week in a bid to solve the impasse, and Deccan Herald has reliably learnt that a cricket-specific compromise is on the cards which will apply not just to India’s cricketers but to the international cricketing fraternity.
On Thursday, Srinivasan and the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, Prof Ratnakar Shetty, will be in involved in a teleconference with ICC officials and WADA representatives as a follow-up to the Dubai deliberations.

Sources have revealed that in principle, an agreement has been reached on three issues, the development of a cricket-specific testing programme topping that list.
Additionally, the ‘whereabouts’ information is likely to be filed on a monthly or a bi-monthly basis as opposed to the original quarterly requirement so that there is some control over how much information is dispensed with how quickly.

The third point revolves around the responsibility of the accurate and timely filing of the ‘whereabouts’ by member Boards rather than the players themselves. What sanctions member Boards will face for not submitting relevant information by the required deadline, for the information not being complete or accurate, or for the player not being at the relevant location without good reason, is yet to be worked out.
The sources added that a few other member Boards will be familiarised with the reworked cricket-specific code before the issue is placed before the ICC’s Chief Executives' Committee in December.

Once the CEC gives its go-ahead, the code is to be sent to WADA for its consideration, comment and eventually approval.