Search on for 'Hand of God' as CoA passes buck in Prithvi Shaw fiasco

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After the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Tufan Ghosh feigned ignorance on Thursday, it is the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) which has passed the buck in the Prithvi Shaw doping fiasco.

Nobody seems to have an idea as to how the opener kept training at the NCA despite being handed a ban on July 16. The matter reminds one of the infamous 'Hand of God' incident wherein nobody was initially sure as to how Diego Maradona scored that famous goal in the 1986 World Cup game between Argentina and England.

Two-Test old Shaw (19) has been banned from all forms of cricket for a period of eight months after failing a dope test.

Speaking to IANS, a CoA member said that the committee was not in the loop on the technicalities at play regarding the issue and it would be unfair for them to comment on the matter since they weren't aware of the process followed.

"We are not aware of the technicalities that come with these matters. We don't know the rules and we shouldn't be commenting on something which we are not aware of. Not sure if we will discuss this in the next CoA meeting either," the member said.

The authorities have told IANS that the BCCI anti-doping manager, the legal team and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rahul Johri had been aware of the proceedings from the word go. 

But when NCA COO Ghosh was asked if the BCCI CEO had passed him any message on Shaw's positive test result, the COO refused to comment and said that BCCI authorities should be asked any question in this matter.

Surprised by the turn of events, a BCCI functionary said that anti-doping classes are held regularly and for Shaw to consume the medicine and then call it an inadvertent mistake 'doesn't hold much ground'. 

"He is an international player and there are regular anti-doping classes that are held not just for the domestic players, but also for the international players," the functionary said.

Another point that has been ignored is that while the Indian Premier League was over by the time the full documentation report came to the BCCI -- May 17 -- the Mumbai T20 league started on May 14 and ended on May 26. Shaw should have ideally been stopped from participating in this tournament since the BCCI had by then received the entire report.

But Shaw continued to play for North Mumbai Panthers. Not to forget the question on who allowed Shaw to continue training at the NCA even after being officially told about the doping violation on July 16. This too remains unanswered. 

Clearly, the 'Hand of God' in this whole fiasco needs to be identified at the earliest because for now everyone seems to be happy to pass the buck.