He is 19 years old. He made his Test cricket debut at the age of 18, and has just two Tests to his name as of writing. He became the youngest Indian player to score a Test century on debut when he played against visiting West Indies in Rajkot. But, he is yet to earn his One Day International and T20 International cap.
Prithvi Shaw's transition from a junior India cricketer to a senior one happened amidst a lot of eager anticipation. For India’s Under-19 World Cup winning captain and batting talent extraordinaire, all the struggles, hard work and single-minded dedication to play the game were finally bearing fruit.
But life in cricket after the first two Tests did not pan out the way young Shaw would have envisaged. A freak injury while fielding in a side game saw him out of the Australia tour in December 2018. He returned to action in the Sued Mushtaq Ali Trophy — the domestic T20 competition — and followed it up with a decent outing with Delhi Capitals in the 2019 season of the Indian Premier League. However another injury saw him miss the India A tour of the West Indies in July. The nature of injury was not made public by the BCCI.
On July 30, BCCI revealed that Shaw was one of the three cricketers found in violation of the board’s Anti Doping Rules and that he was serving an 8 month long ban, part of which was back dated.
Shaw’s doping violation could not have come at a worse time for him. Injury setbacks aside, concerns in cricket circles are growing of the young India opener having some “issues” that are reportedly more in the nature of growing up pangs than anything else. There are concerns as to which way Shaw will end up taking: A road to high glory traversed by the likes of fellow Mumbaikar Sachin Tendulkar, or the road of wasted opportunities like another great talent from the city —Vinod Kambli.
It is reliably learnt that his immediate family — father, grandparents and team — are all helping him come out stronger from the last year’s setbacks.
Since the age of four, his life has only been about cricket. His main support system is his father, Pankaj, who raised him alone, dedicating his life too to cricket, and even giving up his business once. Shaw has been fortunate to have ‘mentors’ and backers, as he made his way up the cricketing age group ladder. While growing up in Mumbai’s ‘School of hard knocks’, he has received praise and support from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar.
When he returns to active cricket in November this year, he will have a lot on his plate — the foremost being displaying with the bat that the faith placed in his cricketing abilities does not go to waste, apart from ensuring that the doping taint fades away as quickly as possible.
His test replacement, Mayank Agarwal, meanwhile gets an opportunity to cement his place after he impressed all with his debut, making two half centuries Down Under.
Coming back to the Anti-Doping Rules Violation (ADRV), Shaw admitted as per the BCCI statement that the ADRV “was inadvertent, being caused by his ingestion of... over the counter cough syrup” that he had taken for a cough. The BCCI chose to believe his explanation “that he had taken Terbutaline inadvertently to treat a Respiratory Tract Infection and not as a performance-enhancing drug,” adding in its statement that “having considered all of the evidence and taken expert external advice, the BCCI has accepted Mr. Shaw’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.”
Still, there are those who feel that BCCI-registered cricketers, particularly those who have represented India at any level, have undergone intensive education and sensitising under the BCCI’s Anti Doping education system — and cannot be allowed to pass violations off as a mere inadvertent mistake.
Did a delay cause a five-month gap between test and finding?
Meanwhile, questions are being raised on why the BCCI disclosed this five months after he was tested on February 22, 2019. Shaw was charged with ADRV on July 16. The BCCI applied its Anti Doping Rule, Article 10.10.2, to back-date the start of the period of ineligibility to the date of sample collection (February 21, 2019). As per ADR Article 10.10.2, Shaw is also required to serve one half of the period of ineligibility. Therefore, further to BCCI ADR Article 10.10.2, the eight-month period of ineligibility was deemed to have started to run on March 16, 2019, and to end at midnight on November 15, 2019.
That he played in an IPL season within this period has also led to questions over the time of pronouncing the punishment and back dating it.
According to various anti-doping experts and lawyers, the BCCI followed the procedure prescribed in its anti-doping code. Even the UK Anti doping Agency follows similar protocols. Once an athlete accepts the charge, the internal decision making body gives its verdict. “It is in line with WADA code. The punishment can range from 1-8/9 months. This is normal,” said a lawyer with experience of anti doping matters.
“If there has been a delay in announcing the punishment and making it public, it is a procedural delay as the results which have come from NDTL have come in late,” said the lawyer. The BCCI has sent the samples to be tested in the National Anti Doping Laboratory in New Delhi. The BCCI has been under pressure to come under the National Anti Doping Agency code to allow it to test cricketers in tournaments played at home. The BCCI meanwhile maintained that NADA could only test cricketers with its due permission. It had stubbornly resisted the demand. WADA asked ICC to broker a truce between NADA and BCCI. Recently it agreed to work with NADA on a six month trial basis with NADA collecting the samples and testing them in NDTL. This delay could well have some repercussions on the ICC-brokered truce between NADA and BCCI.
