That day is not far when something of this sort can happen to Indian Sport.
Be positive and don’t test positive should be the mantra that one should chant from here on. I am referring to all the people who are related to the world of sports and are for some strange reasons, opting the easy way out to bring glory to them and to the nation. At least, they have succeeded in tarnishing their country’s image in gradually making everyone believe that we can only win medals by taking banned drugs.
Drugs are not something new to the world of sports where a host of athletes have been tempted to take these performance-enhancing drugs banned by ’’ The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ’’.And later, these people, after testing positive, feign ignorance or give some medical reasons. Ben Johnson brought the whole issue to world focus at the Seoul Olympics and faced a lengthy banishment after which his come back was far from pleasing. Now we have our very own kunjuraniDevi, Satish Rai , Mada Swamy, Sunita Rani Etc who have seen the drug limelight!!
Where are we heading??
I, for all these years believed that Indians are impervious to this temptation and would not fall prey to the PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs).
The belief being simply due to:
1) Financial state of our country as a whole
2) Sports in general not being a lucrative career option.
3) Personal and National pride.
Since my belief doesn’t hold sufficient weightage anymore because of the recent developments in Indian sport, I feel some loop holes have to be closed to curb this drug menace from Indian Sport. Though, I must admit that these doping tests are relatively costly to carryout and wouldn’t be feasible to make it a norm at every state, zonal and national meets.
Some things that would be useful are:
1) The list of drugs that are banned by the international monitoring community should be made available to all sports authorities across the country and all forms of media should be used for its awareness. This awareness will go a long way in eradicating this new contagious disease that is slowly making its presence felt.
2) There should be severe punishment laws passed by the country for people testing positive and should give full media coverage. Also, ensuring that the tested doesn’t take up the sport again.
3) Ensure that before sending squads to international competitions, everybody is tested thoroughly and cleared accordingly. The testing should be done by professionals and not carried out as another government job (Everybody living in India knows how things work in most of these places).
We know that we are a nation with a population count that will keep the counting machine to shame. Everybody knows that we are not doing justice to the numbers statistically. But, I for one believe firmly that we are missing out some obvious reasons for this state.
The reasons being:
1) Physically, we are not on par with the winning athletes. The reason being our food habits where there is a lack of sufficient protein intake and also partly because of our climatic conditions which is relatively hot.
2) The society failing to acknowledge the fact that sports is an integral part of life and encouraging it can do a world of good to its well being.
All of us know that China in recent years has come to the forefront in international sporting events (almost all) and every body acknowledges that fact today. They were not like this before.. were they? One of my friends who was in China says that the importance given to sports is the key behind its success. If I see the average Indian physique as a whole, I would say that we tend to have pot bellies which starts around 30 and improves in shape to a full size (Elephant God) from there on resulting in all sorts of medical conditions. All the fitness centers are becoming a last resort, which somehow is failing to make a perceptible impact.
In India, we can do some things to rectify the situation.
a) Have sports as a compulsory subject in every school and create a competitive atmosphere where inter school competitions are given a lot of importance and a lot of crowd support and coverage is given. Let the government spend money on that and the only thing that it has to ensure that it doesn’t end up in another scam.
b) Every company that employs people should make a concerted effort in organizing competitions and having similar competitions regularly. Here also, importance should be given and give as much coverage as possible and the winners rewarded suitably. A Round Robin league would ensure that there are a lot of games and matches played instead of the Knockout type, which would result in a lesser number of games. Remember the English football setup?
c) We, as people should stop thinking that only the poor ones should be taking up these sports and should give maximum encouragement to the growing children.
d) Give suitable reservations to people who have excelled in sports. The private colleges should take this seriously and stop worrying about the Huge Payment Sums they would be losing.
e) Provide grounds adequately and should ensure that every locality has one and the necessary sports infrastructure. Also, the government should ensure that all the schools that are authorized by it possess a decent playing ground with adequate facilities. The development authorities should also ensure that there are sufficient parks and playing grounds when it is planning for new settlement havens.
f) Give specialized coaches for all schools and colleges so that they can identify upcoming talents and train them specially.
TOMORROW’s WORLD:
I am sure that all the sporting events of tomorrow will demand drug testing and it is a matter of time when this sport or the other sport goes into it. So, if there are any cricketers doing it, please start dreading!! The world will be on a hunt for your kind. Also, if you are a sports person and are on some MEDICATION, ensure that the international authority has not banned the chemical compounds used in them and consult the physician if you are in doubt. We definitely do not want glory to the Nation in this fashion!!
Let’s hope that there is no headline stating “SACHIN TENDULKAR TESTS POSITIVE” in the future. We have some instances of New Zealanders caught for this. If anyone of you reading this is a professional at sports, have you checked out the banned list?
Rockers of music!!! You are spared in this life!!
Here are some links that may be of some use if you really need some information on the banned drugs.
https://wada-ama.org
https://ncaa.org/sports_sciences/drugtesting/banned_list.html
https://broadcastmonsters.com/ussports/banned.asp
I strongly felt that I need to share this with you and also, in this review, I have done a little bit of formatting and I apologize for that!!! (u say Saala!!)
Finally...
Can’t we have competitions for people who take banned drugs and have separate national, international competitions like in Bodybuilding? We can do it....cant we?
Buy
-Muni