New Zealand's Brendon McCullum speaks on 'positive' drug test during IPL 2016

New Delhi: Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has admitted that he tested positive for a banned substance during the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League but insisted that it was not a "failed drug test" as he had procured a retroactive Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) certificate to "clear his name".

In the WADA list of 2016, there was one "Adverse Analytical Finding' in cricket in India but BCCI never revealed the name of the cricketer while there were rumours of it being a high profile player.

Interestingly, BCCI had revealed that Pradeep Sangwan, Yusuf Pathan and Abhishek Gupta had tested positive for banned substances during various seasons of domestic cricket.

McCullum tested positive while playing for Gujarat Lions during the 2016 season and was summoned for random test after a match against Delhi Daredevils in Delhi. The match was held on April 27 and the Lions had beaten DD by one run.

According to a report in ESPN Cricinfo: "The former New Zealand captain has asthma and, in light of heavy pollution in Delhi at the time, he needed more than the usual dose of his medicine."

"As a result, McCullum's urine sample was found to have exceeded the allowable limit for salbutamol, a drug that is part of inhalers used to treat asthma. The BCCI approached McCullum with these findings following which he secured a retroactive therapeutic use exemption from a panel of independent medical experts in Sweden to close the matter and clear his name."

"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 told stuff.co.nz.

"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."

McCullum said that he felt the need to come out with his version as he heard some rumours about his dope test.

"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."

"As far as I am concerned it was just a matter of making sure we got everything signed off properly, rather than it being a failed drug test.