Former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum has cleared the air about a positive drug test he faced while playing for Gujarat Lions during IPL 2016. The 36-year-old, an Asthama patient, had taken an extra dose of the medication for his condition due to excessive pollution in Delhi that led higher levels of Salbutamol — banned substance on WADA’s list — which were found in his urine sample.
“There was a bit of a process to go through to make sure they had all the information and ticked off the areas they wanted to see, but we went through it all and [the BCCI] were actually pretty good to work with, in the end,” McCullum said.
“I certainly don’t see it as a failed drug test. It was just a case of we just need to seek clarification and apply for this. I have no ill-feeling about [the process] and I also have no guilt or remorse about it because I needed a puff of my inhaler at that time,” he added.
“I’ve heard this sort of rumbling around in the background for a while and I actually said to my wife, ‘I don’t know why we don’t just deal with this now, I’ve got nothing to hide and it is better off just talking about stuff rather than having other people talking about it’. Otherwise, it just grows and festers.
The issue had already been sorted by McCullum’s team of doctors and lawyers.
