Poorer athletes are reeling under doping disgrace, while the richer cricketers walking free. The culprit is the law of nature: all are equal, but the mighty are more equal.
In India, cricket is mightier than almighty and therefore it is above the law. The anti-doping rules do not apply to the sport where we have a ‘god’ playing. The BCCI, the richest cricket organization in the world, doesn’t care if the sports ministry wants to bring in an effective law to curb the doping menace because it is not dependent on government funds.
The National Sports Development Bill is to be introduced in the monsoon session of the parliament and the government wants all sports including cricket to be covered under the act. The BCCI is up in arms for the same reason and trying every trick in the book to keep cricket out of regulation. And in all likelihood the ‘poor’ government will give in for the wealthy cricket board.
ICC, the global governing body of cricket, has signed with WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) in 2006, and doping tests are conducted randomly in world cup ties, and other international matches. Only after this, the world came to know about secrete of the fiery speed of the Rawalpindi Express, and how a googly master was cheating about his stamina.
While anti doping law is essential to provide a level playing field, the BCCI’s resistance is difficult to understand. It neither adheres to WADA nor is in the control of NADA (National Anti Doping Agency), and its arrogance even tends to defy ICC in this regard.
The money accumulated in the board has attracted politicians into its fold and it is cluttered with the deal makers. While we can’t expect sensibilities from these ‘non-playing captains’, the onus lies on the sporting stars. The senior cricketers must voluntarily come forward for scrutiny apart from helping in creating awareness among the juniors.
Bringing awareness among the young athletes is even more important. In the given situation, no well educated youngsters are gravitated towards athletics and the available lot, with poor academics, is easily falling prey to the greedy coaches who tend to feed them with performance-enhancing drugs to score some brownie points for themselves.
Most athletes, till recently, didn’t have decent training facilities or equipment, either in terms of boarding and lodging or sports gear. And forget about educating them about diet and food habit. There is no authentic list of banned drugs available in sports training centres in India. Even Ayurvedic tonic like Chawanprash is understood to have containing some objectionable content. But, who is there to tell them, coming from remote corners of the country, about this?
Few among the athletes under training in Sports Authority of India, in Bangalore, know how to use internet. When Dr. C D Tripathi, NADA's chief of therapeutic use exemption (TUE), asked how many of the campers knew NADA had a website which contained all information about banned drugs and their brand names, none raised hand. His lecture on evils of doping at the training camp, on Tuesday, was a one-way affair with the orator was eloquent in Queen’s English, while the campers were desi Hindusthani. Demand of a yawning audience for a Hindi speech fell on deaf ears.
Unless these issues are addressed, Aswini Akkunjis of the world will go on pleading innocent, while we continue to look at them in suspicion.
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