Wah...Duh!Duped or what?!

The reason I’m back is to do a lot more than just filling up this place. I’ve been watching and following very closely a very thought provoking issue over the last week or so. I thought it’s time I took out time to spend some quality time and do this.

WADA--World Anti Doping Agency, technically speaking, ‘an independent foundation created through a collective initiative to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sport’ (which has been quite apparent actually over the last few days). However, I cannot but wonder if this thing is indeed going off the hook here. The much ranted about Anti Doping Code that stands un-inked on the urbane paper by the BCCI (lately speaking of course for I can think of scores of other organisations who followed a similar course of action) has indeed sparked off much of a debate in the sporting arena (one that has actually existed ever since the Code came into existence), and I can see no wrong in that happening. It DOES indeed contain certain clauses that can be fiercely debated against for hours. I have a serious problem with the ‘whereabouts’ clause in the Code that is supposedly meant to extract the precise whereabouts of all the athletes around the world 24 hours in advance so that they could gatecrash at any moment and at any place, be it while in the Swimming Pool or at the Countryside Bar, be it with the Physician during the annual checkup or with the kids on a delightful Sunday afternoon, and say, “Sir...we’re here to check if you had cocaine last night.”

International sportspersons who seldom do get to feel the aroma of a rest day and to whom their sport is their sole occupation, 365 X 24 X 7, do deserve far more respect than this. What they do in their scarce rest day is entirely a function of their privacy and that cannot be divulged and reported 24 hours in advance every day to people who suspect you had steroids last evening (which I believe is absurd..I mean…how could people predict where they would be and what they’d be doing each and every hour of the next day?). I hope in the middle of this, we do bear in mind that every athlete’s privacy deserves respect. It is entirely and wholly the discretion of the superstar to decide where he’d go and what he’d do to unwind in his free time and pesky agencies have no business whatsoever at the precise team to ‘monitor’ where the best athletes in the world are and what they’d be doing every hour of the day to barge in to conduct a ‘random’ dope test to some 1 out of a million. Do you really think it would be proper for ALL the sportspersons in the world to furnish the precise details as to their whereabouts (assuming optimistically that it is possible of course)? Would it not snowball into a possible security concern also bearing in mind that some of the most popular folk on Planet Earth's complete whereabout details are contained by an ‘agency’ that knows precisely where they’d be at any time of the day? Would it not burden the already worn out conscience of the most tired folk at a time when they should probably stay impervious to worries?

These are only some of the many significant questions that the Code and the Committee fails to answer. The intentions of the WADA are fully justified and their wholesome commitment to ridding world sport of the menace of doping is fully well acknowledged and understood. But that can be no genteel excuse for invading into the privacy of the best sportspersons in the world. I’m quite certain that all the sporting organizations across the world are with the WADA in their commitment to preventing any untoward indulgences of this kind. But the fact that a few prominent sporting organizations of the world have also flatly rejected the Code is a significant statement. The concerns of several athletes across the world are also quite noteworthy in this regard.

The reactions of a few sporting pooh bahs is remarkable. Rafael Nadal for instance said it was ‘a complete breach of one’s privacy’ and completely disapproved of it (although he did eventually sign on the dotted line bounded more by obligation I suspect). Roger Federer however fully approves of the Code and has something as zapping as his tennis to tell us to justify his stand, “The guy’s cheating and he’s smart, right?” Interestingly, ALL prominent Indian athletes have given a thumbs up to this contentious code, save for the Indian Cricket Team (for understandable reasons) and Somdev Devvarman (No…your eyes aren’t faulty).

It pains me to write about a few of the observations that I made over the last week from a few TV channels which improperly highlighted the fact about the BCCI ‘flexing its monetary muscle’ to get things done at their disposal…and the usual rubbish. The BCCI and the Indian players’ concerns are absolutely genuine. The international fraternity (and those glorious members of the World Media) will hopefully acknowledge the fact that cricket is far more than just a sport in our part of the globe. Quite naturally, the passion for the game here is paramount among players and enthusiasts alike. Indian cricketers (apart from their Pakistani counterparts) are probably in the list of the most vulnerable sportspersons around. I mean…we have houses and under construction sites belonging to players vandalized one day and puja-ed the next day. Besides, there does exist a constant cloud of ‘threat’ surrounding cricketers of the Sub Continent and their security should be one of utmost imperviousness. The displeasure of the Indian Cricket Team to comply with the rather preposterous, unsafe Code is fully understandable and I’m glad the BCCI has this time played wise in backing their players for all the right reasons. I was hopefully awaiting a productive result of the meeting between the BCCI and the ICC in view of this conundrum but as many had predicted, all we got to hear at the end of it was the usual dross of the ICC-BCCI being ‘fully determined’ to root out doping in cricket and well, nothing noteworthy beyond that. I dearly hope this standoff is solved before the specified deadline, for I do want to see my team play the 2010 Asiad and not signing on the dotted line would also result in cancellation of their involvement in the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, which we certainly can ill afford to do.

As of now though, this rule needs amendments. Amendments that can mend the split it has created in the sporting fraternity and earn approbation from Organizations and Players alike.

And it is a thought that calls for immediate action. Before things take a murky turn.