By publicly announcing that it was going to collaborate with the Customs authorities to check the baggage of athletes and support personnel at airports in order to unearth possible trafficking in prohibited substances, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has scuttled its own plans that could have provided excellent dividends.
The NADA announced to the media on Friday that it would have its personnel at airports to assist the Customs in screening the baggage of athletics contingents returning from abroad, after competitions or training programme.
This should have been done without giving advance notice, at least in the first instance. To say that these Customs swoops would be ‘unannounced' is pointless since teams are aware now that a watch is being kept on them and the coaches.
It would not be difficult for athletes and coaches to get these consignments of drugs and supplements from abroad through other sources and channels, though obviously with a flurry of activity on the anti-doping front the past few days, prospective illegal dope-importers are bound to be extra careful in the coming weeks.
Past allegations
There have been allegations in the past of coaches, foreign and Indian, bringing in banned drugs from abroad and selling them at inflated rates. Former National hammer throw champion Sukanya Mishra repeated that allegation recently.
The kind of co-operation that the National Anti Doping Organisations (NADOs) could have with the Customs and the Police to check drug trafficking has been evident for long in Australia and several countries in Europe.
In March, 2007 French middle distance runner Hind Dehiba was detained at the Paris airport after vials containing human growth hormone were found in her luggage. Shortly after that she tested positive for EPO and was banned for two years.
Former international Ashwini Nachappa disclosed on television on Friday that Customs officers had detained coaches at Delhi airport in the past with banned substances but things were hushed up.
The NADA could have been discreet in talking about its intended airport raids. Even the latest announcement, after the Mandeep Kaur-Jauna Murmu episode, that the NADA teams could be searching the rooms of the athletes could have been kept under wraps till they actually pulled it off.
Room searches
Room searches should have been a regular affair in NADA's fight against doping. In the past, drugs have been confiscated from the rooms of athletes at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, and the South Centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Bangalore. Nothing came of such findings.
The NADA would do well not to disclose its plans, especially for out-of-competition testing or about airport swoops, in advance.
In the anti-doping domain, the surprise element is the most crucial part. The athletes know how to evade once they get tipped off about testers coming or teams checking luggage.
By the time an athlete actually makes himself available for testing, he would have ensured that the drug traces had been washed out of the system.
