Cheating and the sound of silence
exposed to the same potential for avoiding inconvenient outcomes as are individual Sports, when they do their own policing.
Tygart’s comments suggest that, the hope invested in WADA as an objective and fearless fighter for fairness, is naive.
Modern Sport as we know by now, is an industry of self-interest. Its hen-house produces golden eggs by the day, on an industrial scale. By fair and foul means, it makes a lot of people seriously rich, meaning, too many in positions of power have an interest in ensuring it isn’t policed with unfettered diligence and objectivity. WADA, almost alone, had appeared to stand as a beacon.
To now learn that a figure, as apparently admirable as Tygart, feels as concerned as he clearly does, is to edge closer to total despair. This is to be told that Sport’s police and judiciary are tangled up in it too.
But, can we, at least, take heart that, this only occurs in all those other bad countries where money is loved more than Sport? And that, it’s largely confined to the various drug-corrupted Olympic Sports?
Well, sadly, no. Here in Australia, the independence of our anti-doping authority is also compromised by its constitution. ASADA – as we learnt during the Essendon scandal – resides within the federal government’s Sports ministry. As that saga unfolded, troubling indications emerged of the bureaucracy being unhealthily close to the action. It’s to the credit of successive ASADA chiefs, Ben McDevitt and Aurora Andruska, that the case eventually ran its full and proper course.
Then, there is our national team Sport: Cricket. It has its own forms of sharp practice, yet, these are regularly glossed over, as though cheating at Cricket is somehow different. For all its huffing and puffing about possessing a “spirit”, Cricket is the world champion of avoidance.
International Cricket, where nation confronts nation, is a heated environment. Regularly, a diplomatic tightrope is required to be walked. But this doesn’t excuse the failings of administrative courage so frequently and predictably on display. With each new circumstance, these failings invite a new level of confrontation and brinkmanship.
Recent events in India are the latest example. Clearly, the Australians were caught red-handed in the final innings in Bengalaru. To his credit, Steve Smith owned up to seeking a cue from the Australian rooms, as he contemplated a decision review.
So: the game’s code had to be enforced. Didn’t it?
But no. With our own administrative chief leading the pack, Australia protested its innocence. Remarkably, given Smith admitted to a “brain fade”, James Sutherland’s statement asserted: “We have every faith that there was no ill-intent in his actions.”
The only possible interpretation of this, is that, the national captain literally took leave of his senses in the moment he responded to Peter Handsomb’s suggestion to sneak a look upstairs.
Cricket Australia’s statement attacked as an affront, any suggestion its captain would knowingly cheat. The only thing missing was the more formal, 1932/33 style: “We deprecate your opinion that, there has been unsportsmanlike play. We have fullest confidence in captain, team and managers…”
Not that any of this excuses the Indian skipper. Virat Kohli implied the Australians had cheated serially, but then, lacked the ticker to actually use the c-word. His implied allegation should have been scrutinised and, either Smith be found guiltier than he already was or, Kohli be found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute. Predictably though, both captains walked away Scott-free.
Morning Herald Australia