Jalandhar – The Board of Control for India in Cricket (BCCI) has handed a ban of eight months to Punjab wicketkeeper batsman Abhishek Gupta after for failing a doping test. Gupta’s suspension started from January 15 and will end on September 14. 

The 27-year-old cricketer from Jalandhar has become the first cricketer from Punjab to be found guilty of doping. Gupta has played six first-class matches, six list ‘A’ games and nine domestic T20 matches. A banned substance Terbutaline listed in World AntiDoping Agency’s (WADA) prohibited list was found in his urine sample provided by him on January 15 as part of the BCCI’s dope testing programme, when he was playing for Punjab in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The BCCI charged Gupta with committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) on January 17 and provisionally suspended him. Gupta admitted to the violation but said he took the substance inadvertently, as part of medication prescribed by his doctor to treat an upper-respiratory-tract infection and not as a performance enhancing drug. At first, Gupta was suspended for 4 years by the BCCI, but after hearing Gupta’s explanation and after considering all the evidence and taking expert external advice ban was cut short to eight months.