Time to chase ‘dopers’, workshops can wait

This is the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games year.  One would have expected the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) to be geared up to tackle the doping menace in the country that increases when multi-discipline games are around.

The bedrock of anti-doping measures is out-of-competition testing. For that to be effective at any level, an anti-doping agency has to have a ‘whereabouts’ programme.

Surprisingly, NADA has struggled with its ‘whereabouts’ during the past two years when it showed its desire to implements the programme, fed up as it was with athletes evading testers at national camps.

A ‘whereabouts’ list forces an athlete to make himself/herself available at a particular spot for at least one hour on any given day as per advance information submitted by the athlete.

But NADA is busy nowadays, it seems, with its plans to hold workshops in its larger project of ‘education and awareness' programme. Nothing wrong with this of course, provided the primary task of weeding out the ‘cheats’ is being accomplished.

In order to “identify, advise and formulate” an anti-doping education plan NADA has formed an Expert Group. It plans to hold 100 workshops in 2014-15 across the country in collaboration with various stakeholders.

Expert Group

The Expert Group is loaded with disciplinary/appeal panel members, current and former, and doctors. In order to assess the awareness levels among athletes and coaches, it would have been ideal to have representatives of the current athletes and coaches, having years of experience in the national camps. Especially from among Olympic sports, say athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, instead of a game like chess_which is surely not known for its doping problems_which one of the members, Bharat Singh Chauhan represents as a former player and administrator in this panel. He also happens to be a former hearing panel member.

Should the ministry/NADA opt to bring in representatives of coaches and/or athletes, care could be taken to keep away “known doping sympathizers” from among coaches and to include “clean” athletes in order to understand their problems in getting information or to ascertain whether current educational material is percolating down to the campers.

A similar exercise of taking representation from among coaches and support personnel engaged in several coaching programmes of the SAI could also have been undertaken.

The awareness campaign has been termed ‘IEC’ which apparently means Information, Education and Communication.

And that raises the question, should there not be a ‘communication’ and/or ‘information’ expert in this Expert Group?

Should we also not have a Federation or IOA representative in it? After all, they are people who should be aware of the problems of the athletes, the types of awareness campaigns that go on in the camps, what the roles their coaches play at such locations etc.

Shockingly, there is no one from NADA in the panel. That means there will be none to provide an insight into what NADA had achieved in this sphere for the past five years, whatever little it could be.

Pick from WADA 

You may also ask, what more can this panel find out and recommend that is not available in  WADA’s ‘Education and Awareness section?.

For the past two years, NADA has tried to revamp its website without success. Whether because of bureaucratic hurdles or because of lack of interest, its website has remained dormant since mid-2012.

In this age of ‘electronic information’, it is extremely disappointing to see that the NADA website has retained a “Coming Soon” message on its Home page for nearly two years. The internet having revolutionized communication systems, there could be no agency in the world that does not utilize this facility to its fullest advantage. Education and awareness can begin here rather than in committee rooms.

NADA’s website  is an apology in comparison to that of its counterparts in the UK, USA, Australia etc.

Despite being in existence for five years, the NADA website has not even managed to place on record the names of the suspended athletes on a timely basis (within 20 days of a decision being given by a panel is mandatory as per WADA Code), does not have a ‘supplements warning’ section, has nothing on ‘education programme’ nothing for the athletes barring some rules and a copy of the Prohibited List (the 2014 List was posted only last month), nothing for coaches and support personnel and practically nothing for the media, barring some age-old schedules.

No sign of the new Code

It is yet to post the 2015 WADA Code which has been published in almost all the websites of anti-doping authorities all over the world months ago. And it has plans to hold seven Workshops that would deal with the 2015 Code which has brought in several changes to the 2009 version.

NADA is also yet to print the 2014 Prohibited List and distribute it among all the stakeholders.

Take a look at the UK Anti-Doping website  and you are likely to be thoroughly impressed by the sheer volume of information available there.

Do also check out the USADA website to have more idea about how NADOs utilize websites.

One can be assured the ‘Expert Group for IEC campaign” will surely recommend that NADA set up a “vibrant, dynamic, informative, user-friendly website” that will cater to the needs of the athletes, support personnel, media, National Federations,  SAI, schools, universities etc.

Drug Reference Online

In order to make the website more helpful for the athletes, NADA should lose no time in getting a Global Drug Reference Online (DRO) in place in collaboration with either the UKAD or the USADA.

The DRO is of great help to the athletes who can check out drugs, even those prescribed by a doctor and find out whether those are prohibited. It is also available in Australia, Germany, South Africa, Canada, Switzerland and Ireland

The proposed workshops could be beneficial if the presentations and discussions there could reach doctors manning government dispensaries in remote villages who prescribe nandrolone or stanozolol (steroids) for typhoid or methylhexaneamine (MHA) and mephentermine (stimulants) for cough and cold! And if budding, ill-educated athletes in villages could be told of the harmful effects of steroids etc.

There would be little point in several scientists and doctors, coaches and officials, and athletes who are already familiar with the prohibited substances and methods, the dangers of doping, the WADA Code and disciplinary procedures being told of all these all over again as it quite often happens in these types of workshops and seminars.

The ‘whereabouts’ awaits NADA’s attention as it concentrates on the National campers getting ready for the Commonwealth Games, less than four month away, and the Asian Games after that. Routine camp visits will not be of help as it looks to have been the case since, apart from departmental meets and some junior meets, NADA has not had an important ‘catch’ for several months.