Former Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) President Hein Verbruggen has accused WADA of carrying out a "hate campaign" against him and the UCI, and he has lodged a complaint with the IOC Ethics Committee about former WADA Chair Dick Pound, WADA Dir General David Howman, USADA CEO Travis Tygart and lawyer Bill Bock. Verbruggen said, "It was a serious omission in the past not to create some form of supervisory authority over WADA, such as an Ethics Commission to which an aggrieved party could appeal." Verbruggen was president of the UCI between '91 and '05. The Cycling Independent Reform Commission published no evidence to prove that Verbruggen had covered up a positive test by Lance Armstrong at the 2001 Tour de Suisse, but it highlighted instances where Armstrong had benefited from "preferential status afforded by UCI leadership" (CYCLING NEWS, 4/7).
WASTING WATER: The Bombay high court on Thursday allowed the inaugural Indian Premier League match at Mumbai on April 9 but "pulled up" the Maharashtra government for providing "as much water as they want" to the Indian cricket board for maintaining playgrounds in the drought-hit state. The court, hearing a Non-Governmental Organization’s petition against holding matches of the forthcoming IPL in the state in view of the water crisis, also pulled up the Board of Control for Cricket in India, saying, "People are dying and you want to maintain pitches?" Almost 70% of the state "has been declared drought-hit, forcing the government to impose rationing and prohibitory orders following water rioting in many parts" (HINDUSTAN TIMES, 4/7).
The Int'l Biathlon Union has "delayed doping rulings regarding meldonium" while it waits for the results of a new study into how long it takes the drug to leave the body. At the March 30 hearing, the IBU said that a pilot study into how long meldonium takes to leave a person's system "was in conflict with the standard point of view" (AFP, 4/7).
