U’khand cricketer Rajan fails dope test in rare case, sprinter Dhanalakshmi banned for 8 yrs

New Delhi, Jan 5: Uttarakhand left-arm pacer Rajan Kumar failed a dope test and was handed provisional suspension by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in a rare case involving a cricketer.
The 29-year-old Kumar’s dope sample was found to contain anabolic steroids Drostanolone and Metenolone, as well as Clomifene, which is generally used as a medication to treat infertility in women but also has the ability to restore testosterone levels among men.
Kumar last played against Delhi in Uttarakhand’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Group D match in Ahmedabad on December 8, 2025.
Cricketers have rarely failed dope tests. Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Anshula Rao was caught for doping in 2020, while Prithvi Shaw failed dope test in 2019.
Nongmaithem Ratanbala Devi also became one of the rare footballers to fail a dope test as her name also figured in the latest updated list of athletes who were handed provisional suspensions.
The Manipur footballer’s sample was found to contain anabolic steroid Metandienone.
Others in the list are Gaurav Patel (athletics), Khushboo Kumari (weightlifting), Achalveer Karwasra (boxing) and Siddhant Sharma (polo).
Tamil Nadu sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar, who has failed a dope test for the second time in her career last year, has been handed eight year ban effective from September 9, 2025.
She had tested positive for anabolic steroid Drostanolone in September 2025, which was her second dope offence.
The 27-year-old had returned to action in 2025 after serving a three-year ban for a dope offence in 2022. (PTI)