We can't allow WADA to intrude into our privacy: Yuvraj

New Delhi:

The Indian cricketers are at loggerheads with the International cricket council over signing an anti-doping code that says each player will have to reveal their whereabouts for one hour every day for over a time period.

Players feel that this is a violation of their privacy.

Speaking to NDTV, India batsman Yuvraj Singh said that they will sit down with the BCCI to outline the problems but they don't want to undergo these tests, particularly when they're not playing cricket.

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"Indian players can not allow WADA to intrude into their privacy" Yuvraj said during a promotional event.

Yuvraj said some of the Indian players, who are in the list of those required to furnish their whereabouts to the International Cricket Council in advance, will meet an ICC lawyer on Sunday in Mumbai and take a collective decision.

"Our concern is that we play 9-10 months of continuous cricket and when we are not playing we should be given that free time. We have a meeting tomorrow with the ICC and depending on that we will take a decision," Yuvraj said.

"Every team has their own decision, similarly we have our own. It a complete team decision and I would go by what the team decides. I don't have any individual opinion and even if I have I won't like to discuss it now," he added.

The Indian players missed the July 31 deadline to sign the WADA anti-doping code and are awaiting a meeting between the ICC and BCCI on Sunday to get their concerns addressed on the contentious issue.

According to the "Whereabout Requirements" clause of the WADA anti-doping code, all cricketers under the ICC's international testing pool should to furnish in an online form their whereabouts for the next three months, even during off-season, in advance to facilitate effective out-of-competition testing.

Earlier on Friday, the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) had demanded that either ICC penalise Indian players, who missed the deadline to submit the WADA anti-doping form because of its 'whereabout clause', or withdraw the code.

Yuvraj responded that it was unfair for FICA to say Indian players should be penalised. Few countries have signed does not mean all have to do so.

Yuvraj doesn't support the view that Twenty20 format was forcing cricketers retire early from Test cricket, saying the two things were not related in any way.

"I don't think players are retiring because of they want to play more Twenty20. Flintoff is a one of the best all-rounders and he has played enough cricket and it has taken a toll on his body, while Muttiah Muralitharan is a legend already. I don't see there is any relation between the two," Yuvraj said.

Asked which form of cricket he prefers to play, Yuvraj said," I would play any format that I am asked to play, four-day, 50-overs, Twenty20 whatever."

(With PTI inputs)