THE DOPE ON DOPE TESTING

MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball in the United States, the nation's favourite pastime has suffered numerous blows when various doping scandals hit the sport, none more crushing than the Barry Bonds affair. Bonds, whose record of most home runs ever in baseball stands tainted because of that, was only the tip of a dirty iceberg as it now transpires. In cycling, doping has threatened to overshadow the Tour De France, Lance Armstrong and a lot of other teams and riders (Team Festina's ban and the mysterious death of rider Marco Pantani still rattle fans). Track and field has had its high profile disgraces as well (anyone remember Marion Jones?). Italian football clubs (notably Juventus, AC Milan and the like) have been notorious for having pharma stocks more varied and voluminous than a general hospital.

In this air of corruptibility that shrouds modern competitive sport, surely the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) isn't asking for too much if it wants to test cricketers as well. The BCCI's petulant reaction of not agreeing to sign on a dotted line where all FIFA players, as well as cricketers from other countries have signed once again underlines its role as an ugly bully in world cricket. Strangely, as a country, we seem to be backing them and our cricketers in calling for respecting their privacy and security concern. Pardon my language, but that's a lot of horse manure, if you ask me. Cricketers, especially of the Indian variety, have of late started behaving as if they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, or as in this doping case, a silver needle on their arm. If the WADA had any other way of making sports drug free ('Remember kids, only losers don't drugs' is what pro sports seems all about these days!) it would have, but the demands of our time and scandals that have fermented because of it (see above) have left it no choice but to solidify the policing. If a common citizen has to subject himself to frisking and metal detectors from schools to shopping malls, its unfathomable why a cricketer can't take a while off their 'busy' off season for a simple test. And if anyone thought cricket was immune to the temptation of 'performance enhancement', look no further than Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Akhtar.

I doubt WADA's strict testing will continue forever; its simple economics that the incentive to cheat will srop drastically if the system is firmly held in place long enough. But for that to happen, compliance without compromise is the keyword. And if you really idolize your cricket players, and consider them models for good behaviour, I suggest not wearing the seatbelt or the helmet as a show of solidarity. Meanwhile, I just hope our cricketers are good at urinating in a cup!