If the BCCI don't comply with the WADA regulations, cricket should not be considered a sport. It should be called entertainment, so it doesn't have to adhere to any rules
If the BCCI don't comply with the WADA regulations, cricket should not be considered a sport. It should be called entertainment, so it doesn't have to adhere to any rules
Let me make one thing very clear: I am an ardent cricket fan and rarely miss a T20 game.
But the latest controversy between the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) is completely uncalled for.
All sports and sportspersons are equal. There is no room for discrimination in sport. So, there is no question of our cricketers not complying with WADA anti-doping methods. They have to, at all times, keep the WADA informed of their whereabouts.
I was shocked at reports that BCCI flatly refused to comply with WADA guidelines. And I am in complete agreement with what Union sports minister M S Gill has to say. There has to be honesty in sport. It should be competed with total fairness.
On one hand, cricket administrators go to the government for tax exemption and apply for prestigious sporting awards. They also hope that T20 cricket would be included in Olympics. They want everything, but they don't want to follow rules. Are our cricketers super humans greater than the likes of Roger Federer and Usain Bolt?
ShockingTwo hundred countries have signed the anti-doping pact. Even FIFA, which was initially averse to WADA guidelines, is now part of the family. And our cricketers, supported by their powerful bosses, don't even want a dialogue? It is nothing but shocking.
Looking at the whole issue realistically, I don't see anything so extraordinarily inconvenient about WADA rules.
But if the BCCI and players whom they govern and protect at times still don't want to comply with the rules, they should not consider cricket as a sport. Call it entertainment instead. Give it any name, but not sport.
Then, there won't be a question of adhering to WADA guidelines.
Also, there have been instances where cricketers have been caught in the doping net.
I have nothing against the BCCI or cricketers. In fact, I was very impressed with how theu00a0 BCCI dealt with the Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh controversy in 2008. Some of the stands the BCCI have taken are genuine ones. Not this one though.u00a0
Ideally, the BCCI and the ICC should sit across the table and arrive at an amicable solution. Rubbishing WADA's regulations downright is not done.
This non-cooperation movement is unacceptable.
(The author is a former sprinter who has represented India at the Olympics)
