Hindustan Times
Storm in a bottle
For some time now WADA has been a cause of serious arguments in India. People from Mumbai swore that the wada (sometimes vada) was the greatest culinary invention. Potato, spices, batter fried, what was not to like? Sandwiched in bread the wada-pav was reportedly the McDonalds of India, the perfect cheap snack that would fill the stomachs of lakhs every day. The rest of India politely disagreed and never could understand what the fuss was all about.
The humble WADA has now moved over and the overzealous World Anti Doping Agency has crept into the vocabularies of a cricket loving nation. India’s leading lights cite the constitution, talk of security threats from terrorists and basically just will not abide by a clause that requires them to confidentially file their whereabouts for an hour each day, in thirty-day blocks, in advance.
But what exactly is the problem? Sportsmen around the world have signed on and although they complain about the tediousness of the exercise all just grit their teeth and get on with it. Just when the International Cricket Council thought they were doing the decent thing, adopting a globally accepted norm, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said “thanks, but no thanks.”
Just why does the BCCI have to get involved? Why do they have to roadblock pretty much anything the ICC comes up with, and to add insult to injury then call the apex governing body toothless? It’s a bit like asking why Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt Everest. Simply because it was there to be done and he could do it.
Can India’s players really be complaining about having to pee in a bottle when WADA’s marshals come calling? And even so, since when does the BCCI back the players when they want something? Usually when the board gets its hands dirty there’s either money or power involved. In this case there are no millions to be made, but certainly there’s power to be lost.
Once an agency like WADA gets involved, it has unlimited access to the players. If they don’t like being tested, out of competition, the players will have to recourse to appeal. At that point of time the (usually) all-powerful Working Committee of the BCCI won’t have a say. There will be no avenue through which the matter could be escalated with threats of boycotts and withdrawals, cancelled contracts and million-dollar deals being undone. Basically, there will be at least one aspect of the sport in which the BCCI, used to getting its way even when it’s in the wrong, simply does not lord it over everyone else.
So there you have it, the players don’t want their privacy infringed, the board does not want to lose absolute control of their biggest asset, the superstars, and WADA is told to take a hike and everyone is happy.
Not quite.
When the globalisation of the game moves away from getting Papua New Guineans to bowl googlies and teaching Chinese how not to play the Chinese (also called Surrey) cut, to a genuinely international initiative – the Olympic movement, cricket will be left in the cold. When the realisation sinks in that India’s reluctance to be WADA compliant, and the ICC’s inability to force them to do so, cost the game a chance to be a part of the Olympic movement, people will get upset. At the moment India’s non-compliance seems like a victimless crime, which explains why so many powerful people in cricket are silent on the issue. Like the very route of this row, ignorance is carrying the day. That state, however, is unlikely to last forever.
(6 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Anand Vasu on Friday, August 7, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Filed under Cricket · Tagged batter fried, BCCI, ICC, India, McDonalds of India, Mumbai, Potato, spices, World Anti Doping Agency
Yes, Anand, it is extremely selfish of the BCCI and of the Indian cricketers to not subject themselves to this testing….they basically put all cricketers who have always dreamt of getting an olympic gold in cricket in a very bad position…I just wish the ICC said ‘Get the hell out of my face, I don’t care what you guys think’…..
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I fail to understand the problem here. How difficult is it to give your location, especially as the players themselves claim they are on tour 9 months. Surely its not difficult to update locations when its as simple as sending an SMS if there’s a change in plan. Is it inconvenient? Do they think WADA guys would ring their doorbells every next day? And what is it about security? Do they think WADA is going to leak their locations to the Taliban? To me it just looks like players are interesting in getting every penny they can out of the game, but don’t want to make the slightest sacrifice in return.
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I don’t agree with the ‘whereabouts’ clause. If WADA cannot come up with a more ’21st century’ humane / privacy friendly way of doing the testing then maybe they need to go back to the drawing board.
The fact that other sport bodies have (reluctantly or not) signed on to the wada regulations is not a reason to accept an intrusive testing code. Just because everyone is doing something does not necessarily make it goodor right. Someone has to speak up.
Manoj
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Taking potshots at BCCI is the favorite theme of some of the so called journalists this one’s no different. While I usually agree with most of whats written against BCCI, on this issue I am solidly behind it.
Why should the cricketers signup for WADA with the infamous Whereabouts clause?
Because all the other athletes have done so. Never mind that many of those did express their concerns about invasion of privacy and the provision is against EU privacy laws. But hey we follow the west so if they signed up without much fuss then our cricketers are surely spoiled brats for throwing their weight around and resisting.
For the record no Indian player has said that they are afraid of peeing in a bottle, just that they don’t want to tell in advance where to bring thebottle. Let the players know 24hrs in advance and they will gladly piss.
When it comes to power only the foolish let it slip out voluntarily. If cricket becomes a global sport BCCI will loose a lot of their clout and they don’t want to see it happen so they will be happy to see cricket remain outside of WADA rule and ICC can’t do a damn thing about it.
India will remain a superpower in the world of cricket and this is BCCI’s way of ensuring that.
More power to them!
-J
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