Chief selector of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Chetan Sharma, has made a shocking revelation about top Indian players and claimed that famous players of the national side use injections to stay fit.
During Indian channel Zee News' Sting Operation programme "'Game Over", Sharma said: "Many of India's biggest, most famous players use injections. The injection contains a banned drug that cannot be caught in a dope test."
He strictly emphasised that the players don't use "painkillers" but injections.
"No! I am talking about injections. If they take painkillers, then it will be detected in the dopping test. Team India players are aware of which injections are detected in those tests."
The former cricketer stated that players make 100% fitness by injecting after consultation with doctors.
He claimed that India's star pacer Jasprit Bumrah hid his back injury before the T20I series against Australia last year in a bid to make the T20 World Cup 2022 squad.
"Even if players are 85 per cent fit, they ask us to let them play even though the medical science does not clear them. Players never refuse to play matches and want to play. There is Bumrah (Jasprit Bumrah) who cannot even bend properly right now," Sharma was quoted by Zee News.
"Jaspirt Bumrah was unable to bend as he had a major injury, other than that, there are one or two players who take injections in private and say that they are fit to play"
"The players are not fit, but they take injections to play. They are ready to play even at 80% fitness. They take injections and start playing."
Moreover, he also revealed that the BCCI deliberately overlooked the fitness of prominent players.
Meanwhile, Sharma also shed light on Virat Kohli's removal as Indian Test skipper and said Kohli didn't lose captaincy because of then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
"Virat Kohli felt he lost the captaincy because of BCCI president. There were 9 people in the selection committee video conference, Ganguly may have told him ‘think about it once’. I think Kohli didn’t hear it, there were 9 others there, including myself and all other selectors, BCCI officials – Kohli might not have heard him."
In addition, Sharma disclosed that Hardik Pandya would be the next captain of the T20I side, while veteran batter Rohit Sharma wouldn't be part of the shortest format of the game.