Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk suspended following doping violation

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk has been provisionally suspended after failing a doping test. The Football Association contacted the club on ‘an adverse finding in a routine urine test’.

Mudryk, 23, has denied any such finding and claimed he has ‘never knowingly used any banned substance’ and will be looking on how to proceed from the shocking revelation.

“I can confirm that I have been notified that a sample I provided to The FA contained a banned substance. This has come as a complete shock, as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules, and I am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.

“I know that I have not done anything wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the pitch soon. I cannot say any more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will as soon as I can,’ read the statement by Mudryk.

Reports of Mudryk’s violation came out in Ukraine on Monday, which claimed the substance found in his ‘A’ sample was Meldonium, a performance-enhancing drug that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list on January 1, 2016.

“Chelsea Football Club can confirm the Football Association recently contacted our player Mykhailo Mudryk concerning an adverse finding in a routine urine test. Both the club and Mykhailo fully support The FA’s testing programme and all our players, including Mykhailo, are regularly tested. Mykhailo has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances. Both Mykhailo and the club will now work with the relevant authorities to establish what has caused the adverse finding,” read the statement by Chelsea football club.

Mudryk joined Chelsea for a deal worth up to 89 Million Pounds, after beating London rivals Arsenal to his signature in January 2023. The Ukrainian had signed an eight and a half-year contract deal which will run until June 2031. Since joining the club Mudryk has had an underwhelming impact on the club having played 73 games whilst only racking up 10 goals and nine assists so far.

The biggest doping case in football in recent times has been that of Paul Pogba after he was banned for four-years for using DHEA, a testosterone-enhancing supplement. Pogba’s violation was classified under ‘non-endogenous testosterone metabolites’ by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)) and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility commencing in September 2023 and a fine of 5,000 Euros but reduced the sanction imposed on the player to 18 months of ineligibility and cancelled the fine.

–IANS

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Basit Ali warns PCB against accepting ICC’s ‘lollipop’ deal on Champions Trophy

New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has raised concerns over the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) potential acceptance to a reported compromise deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC), calling it a ‘lollipop’ that would ultimately harm Pakistan cricket.

Basit’s remarks come amidst ongoing discussions about hosting rights and financial compensation tied to the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2026 T20 World Cup.

The ICC and PCB have reportedly agreed on a hybrid model for the 2025 Champions Trophy, allowing India to play its matches in Dubai instead of Pakistan. This decision, driven by political tensions, has sparked debates over revenue loss for the PCB, as the marquee India-Pakistan clash, a major revenue generator, will not take place on Pakistani soil.

As part of the compromise, Pakistan will also not travel to India for their league-stage match in the 2026 T20 World Cup. Instead, the game will be played in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is to be noted that India and Sri Lanka are the joint hosts for the 2026 T20 World Cup. In exchange, the ICC has promised Pakistan hosting rights for the Women’s World Cup after 2027.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Basit Ali criticised the PCB for accepting this deal, stating it offered no substantial benefit to Pakistan cricket. He urged the board to push for hosting the men’s Asia Cup instead, emphasising the economic and cricketing significance of hosting high-profile men’s tournaments.

“Now it is being said that in 2027 or 2028, a women’s World Cup will be given to Pakistan. Everybody will say, ‘waah ji waah! This is great, not one but two ICC events (in Pakistan)!’ But what’s the point of events like these? It’s being done so that in 2026, the Pakistan team will travel to India and the Indian women’s team will then come to Pakistan. The broadcasters won’t suffer any losses,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.

“Do you know what a lollipop is? This is a lollipop the ICC is giving to the PCB…that if you agree to this, don’t ask for anything in writing and we will give you another ICC event. This won’t be of any benefit (to Pakistan). They should rather bid for the Asia Cup, which is next year. The PCB should ask for this. The PCB won’t benefit by hosting the Women’s World Cup or U-19 World Cup. If the PCB accepts this lollipop, they’ll be the losers.”

Basit also highlighted how this arrangement could set a precedent for further compromises in the future, such as the Pakistan men’s team travelling to India and vice versa for tournaments, ensuring broadcasters do not face revenue losses.

While the PCB has yet to officially confirm the details, sources suggest the board is under pressure to accept the hybrid model to ensure the Champions Trophy proceeds smoothly. The ICC’s refusal to provide financial compensation for the revenue loss from the Indo-Pak matches has made the deal even more contentious.

–IANS

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3rd ODI: India still not a finished product as a fielding unit, admits Smriti Mandhana

Perth, Dec 11 (IANS) After her knock of 105 went in vain as India lost the third ODI to Australia by 83 runs to be clean swept 3-0, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana admitted India are not yet a finished product as a fielding side.

India were sloppy in their fielding display throughout the series and in Wednesday’s game at the WACA Ground, they dropped Annabel Sutherland twice, who went on to slam a brilliant 110 and posted 298/6. In reply, barring Smriti’s ninth ODI ton, none of the Indian batters supported her as they were bowled out for 215 in 45.1 overs.

“Fielding is an aspect which is a work in progress for us for the last one and a half to two years. We’ve definitely improved quite a lot, but we are not still a finished product in the fielding unit.”

“So day in, and day out we need to put the hard yards in and get the team sorted in terms of the fielding. We all know that we all want to learn and accept our mistakes, which is a great thing about this team. So we’ll take these things in our stride and try and rectify our mistakes,” said Smriti in the post-match press conference.

India came into Australia after beating New Zealand 2-1 in ODIs in Ahmedabad in October, but couldn’t win a single game on their trip. “Definitely tough to take because we came here (after) winning the New Zealand series and really felt that the team was looking good.”

“But definitely got outplayed by Australia, especially in the second and third match. There were days when our batting clicked and days when our bowling clicked, but we as a team couldn’t click together. A lot of learnings to take and hopefully we keep working on them,” added Smriti.

She also brushed aside queries that India doubt their abilities to compete against Australia in international cricket. “We definitely don’t doubt that we can’t compete. You can’t play a game of cricket if you doubt yourself so not that the belief only came today. When we even got them five down in the first match, the belief was always there.”

“I’m sure that there are things which didn’t go our way – like there was a time in this game where we could have taken those chances and maybe the result would have been different. It’s a learning for us about taking all those chances when given and we’ve never doubted our belief system.”

With Shafali Verma left out, Smriti had a new opening partner in Priya Punia, before Richa Ghosh filled in for the last two games. Priya’s left knee injury in the second ODI meant India were forced to promote Richa to the top of the order, which meant they had no firepower in the middle order.

“That’s a call which will be taken maybe once we get back home, but last match was a really unfortunate injury for Priya Punia and we didn’t have a choice – we were chasing 380 and Richa is the most attacking batter we have in our batting line up,” she said. “If she gets going, she can take the game on and away from any team. So that was the plan last match and the unfortunate injury from Priya made us change these things. But we’ll definitely have a review about it and see what we can do the best,” she added.

With the ball, seam-bowling all-rounder Arundhati Reddy led the initial Indian fightback by extracting seam movement in her first spell of eight overs, which saw her take out Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry and Beth Mooney to pick a career-best 4-27.

“I was just told to pick wickets, but I mean it was a good outing for me personally. The plan was just to pick and keep looking for wickets. I didn’t play the first two games, so it gave me a little time to understand the Australian batters plan accordingly,” she said.

Arundhati could have got her fifth wicket, but Ashleigh Gardner was dropped by Jemimah Rodrigues, and then survived an lbw decision, as it was changed on review. “I was trying too hard to get the fifer, but again it’s part of the game. I was a bit unlucky in the review not going our way, so it’s okay.”

“It would have been better if the team had won – wickets only matter when doing well and the team wins. So unfortunately we couldn’t – but it gives me a lot of confidence. Again I will always look forward to playing against them, as they are one of the best teams and I have always looked forward to playing against them. But taking the wicket of Ellyse Perry was so satisfying,” she concluded.

–IANS

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