Uttarakhand's Rajan Kumar fails dope test in rare case involving cricketer; sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar gets 8-year ban

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. Her sample was found to contain anabolic steroid Metandienone.

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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.