The “whereabouts clause” controversy, which rocked world cricket in August and caused India’s players to come under heavy fire from their counterparts in other sports, is about to end.

When a World Anti-Doping Agency-compliant anti-doping code was first proposed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), India’s players — backed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — stalled the proposal. They believed filing their “whereabouts” three months in advance, as required, raised concerns over invasion of privacy and of security details of star players being compromised.

The “whereabouts” clause makes it mandatory for players to inform authorities of where they will be over the specified period of time so they can be tested unannounced.

HT has learnt that Board secretary N. Srinivasan and other BCCI brass met ICC officials and WADA representative David Howman last week in this regard.

Srinivasan and Ratnakar Shetty, the Board’s chief administrative officer, will be part of a teleconference with ICC and WADA representatives on Thursday to take the process forward.

In essence though, three points have already been agreed on. First, that a “cricket-specific out-of-competition testing programme” be developed. Two, “whereabouts” information be filed on a monthly or bi-monthly basis rather than in advance blocks of three months each, thus allowing that information not be given out too much in advance.

And finally, that the onus of filing the whereabouts information accurately and in time rests with member boards rather than players.

The cricket-specific code will have to be submitted to WADA for approval. “Before this, it will be circulated among other member boards before being put before the ICC chief executives’ committee in December,” a source said.