| Font Size |
From 7 to 8 every morning, 365 days a year, Bindra has made himself available for investigators of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to come knocking for a surprise test. Today, since he was driving down to Delhi at this usual ‘available’ time, Bindra moved the one-hour slot to 5 to 6 pm, at his home in the Capital.
With a big debate around the Indian cricket board’s refusal to sign on for WADA’s ‘whereabouts’ clause citing invasion of players’ privacy and security fears, Bindra, who has been a signatory to the clause since it took effect on January 1, 2009, explained to The Indian Express what it takes for an athlete to manage his whereabouts profile on the web site.
“It’s a simple process,” said Bindra. “Once you have a login for yourself, you create your profile by entering in the mandatory location details: a mailing address, your residential address, your usual training address and a likely competition address, for the next three months.”
What the agency wants, said Bindra, is an hour’s slot each day, at any time of the athlete’s choice from 6 am to 11 pm, during which the athlete must be available at a location fixed by him or her, in case he/she is picked out for a random sample collection.
“I’m home most days from 7am to 8 am, so that time suits me perfectly,” Bindra said. “Anyway, you’re ready to pee when you get up in the morning and that’s all they would ask for.”
Entries made by the athlete are expected to stand for a quarter of the year, unless he/she changes plans, like Bindra did for today. “So I logged on, clicked on the box for August 4, 2009 on the calendar, disabled my usual testing slot, and entered the new evening one,” Bindra said.
If investigators arrive and the athlete is not exactly where he/she is supposed to be, he/she still has that one hour to make it back, said Bindra. If you are unable to get back, however, your information is deemed to be incorrect, and three such misses within 18 months would constitute a punishable doping violation. Ineligibility from competition, ranging from a period of one year to two, would be determined according to the intent or degree of fault.
Even though, as worded by the agency’s 2009 International Standard of Testing, an athlete is required to “be subject to testing 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year”, the actual liability is only for that one pre-determined hour. “The athlete’s exposure to the risk of a missed test is limited to the 60-minute time-slot each day,” the code says. In effect, the athlete can’t be punished if he/she misses a surprise sample collection at a random time during the day.
Changes can be made anytime — and as Bindra was talking to The Express, it struck him that he was going to be in London on October 12. So he logged on, changed his location for that date, but left the address field blank. “I can update it later, closer to the date, when I know exactly where I’m staying and my schedule for the day,” he said.
Security concerns — arising out of the fact that the whereabouts of a famous athlete would be known every day — do not worry Bindra. “For me the biggest security issue is two investigators landing at my doorstep with a sample collection bottle. That’s all I would be concerned about as an athlete.”
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
ok here is the deal. Abhinav Bindra is home all the time. He can afford to this. men in blue came to home after nine months and they stay for 10 days. So in this gruelling schedule who would like to login everyday and do this routine. How about some privacy? How about some fun? BCCI says they will produce the players within 24 hours of notice. Isnt that enough. Had he doped then punish him. Dont be mindless, shooting and cricket are 2 different sports.
cricket is not an athletic game. skill is more important than power.so no need for dope test. And terrorist will target sachin ,not bindra because sachin is well known.these whereabout clause is simply ridiculous.
Our cricket players crib a lot about everything from pitches, weather to umpairs decisions. $hit on these guys
Indian public doesn't care if the players are on drugs or if the matches are fixed and the world doesn't care about cricket. Cricket matches and records don't have much meaning in the world of sports and cricket has a very narrow appeal in world (yes india has a billion people but it is not a world sport and only a handful of countureis play it or care about it). Anti doping etc. matters where records have some meaning. The world cares whether Michael Phelps 100m butterfly is a real record or if it was done with help of drugs. For cricket, Indian public is used to corruption all around and doesn't care. they expect that cricket is as corrupt as rest of life in India. WADA should forget about cricket and focus their energies on sports that matter to the world like football, track and field, basketball, swimming, gymnastics,volleyball, tennis,... Just declare that cricket is a corrupt sport and forget about it. Indians will waste their time on cricket even if it is a big joke.
Frankly speaking, I was thinking that the BCCI, using their money power was taking an unreasonable stand with WADA. However this article about how Bindra goes about keeping WADA updated about his whereabouts has given me new perspective. I think the WADA regulation is too intrusive. I would say draconian. Updating your whereabouts every day? And for what? Thats too much.
You don't have to update your whereabouts every day. You only have to update it if you think you won't be at a place where you had said you would be. Don't get the impression that for 365 days a year the dope testers will be on the look-out for you. No organisation has that kind of resources. This is just a deterrent. If someone says you give your whereabouts for a year and I will give you a bonus of one million dollars, will our cricketers do it?
Thank you Bindra for this cogent explanation of what it means to be a world class athlete in the world today. The rules are applied uniformly to world class athletes all over the world. The pathetic Indian cricketers are not really athletes in the true sense for pot bellied entertainers. All they need to do is declare that cricket is not an athletic endeavour but pure entertainment where you have made up characters, playing a role in a match that is fixed! This will exempt cricke from the WADA rules because these rules apply only to sports and athletics and not to entertainers!
Out cricketers are a pampered lot. They behave like rock stars more than sportsman. If an Olympic gold medalist have not problem in compliance, there is no reason for cricketers to crib about it.