“Choices, decisions and consequences – what is it about drugs and sports?”

Feb 12, 2012 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft

 

What is it that allows professional sports people to betray themselves, efforts, families, coaches,

supporters and countries, when it comes to consuming illegal substances – drugs – supposedly for better performances?  Is it fame, fortune, stupidity, arrogance, ignorance?
London 2012 Olympics is five months away.  The specter of drugs consumption, masking and unmasking, must be discussed.  Almost predictably, there could be drug instances there!
Since Ben Johnson’s situation at Seoul 1988 Olympics, Marion Jones’ escapades, and, before those, East German athletes in distant Olympics past, the athletic world has been trying hard to eradicate drugs.  Indeed, there have been several recent disclosures thereof, with professional cycling taking headlines!
“If yuh mek yuh bed ard, yuh gah foh lie dung pun um”, say Guyanese.  Paraphrased, if you make decisions and choices, you must accept consequences, whatever they may be.  It amazes as to the extent modern sports professionals go to, trying hard for exoneration, after making such bad choices!
Cricket, especially West Indies cricket, has been fortunate in this regard.  While the sport, in our region, has been slightly embroiled in match-fixing scandals, seriously so for political shenanigans, power struggles and outright idiocy, we can still boast that we do not have to “do drugs” to win, or to lose!
That is a major miracle, considering our economical positions and geographical environment of Central and South America.  Thousands die per month in neighboring countries because of drugs!
While batsmen, perhaps with exceptions, would probably not perform better under influences of alien stuff; enhancing or hallucinogenic; bowlers, especially faster bowlers, could have needed external help.  Thankfully, hopefully lastingly, “tekking drugs” has never been, and will never be, our functional factor!
Oh, there have been rumors, innuendos and damned lies, but nothing so drastic that could damage cricket permanently.  All we need now is, somehow, to get our cricketing politics in proper order!
Cricket has produced absolutely excellent bowlers, mostly fast, in the last 40 or so years.  None, repeat, definitely none, as far as I know, has even had a sniff; no pun intended; of involvement in anything such.  I can categorically state that I have never, nor do I know of any others, who have been thusly minded!
Consider West Indies’ Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose, Australians Dennis Lillee and Glen McGrath, Pakistanis Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee and Shane Bond, South Africa’s Makhaya Ntini and Sean Pollock, England’s Andy Caddick and Darren Gough, India’s Kapil Dev and Javigal Shrinath, Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas , and many others, including me too, I suppose!
They have bowled more than half a million deliveries in superb international careers, doubling, even tripling those, if first class games are included.  Averaging ‘run-ins’ of 20 meters, some longer, they will, collectively, have covered 20,000 + kilometers.  Modern cars do not travel such distances without help!
Yet, none of us have ever had to resort to being under the influence of anything untoward to get people out.  We relied on sheer strength, training, education, skills, and determination.  We did it all naturally!
America’s variant of cricket, baseball, has had severe trauma about drugs and its players’.  Strangely, it was not pitchers who had performance inducing situations, even though some; Dwight Gooden comes to mind; have had careers shortened by drug abuse.  Mostly, the scourge has been with hitters!
Barry Bonds, of Pittsburg Pirates and San Francisco Giants, 1986 to 2007; Sammy Sota who played for Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, 1989 to 2007; and Mark McGuire, who played for Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, 1986 to 2001, record breakers all, have also been seriously implicated, or confirmed, to have taken anabolic steroids in their careers!
Now, road cycling is back in drug news.  Cycling certainly clears my head, literally and figuratively.  One must think for every moment while on the saddle, or serious injuries, and death, can occur, especially on Caribbean roads.  Drivers never see riders.  There are no safety provisions made here for cyclists!
I always try, desperately, to keep myself in relatively good physical shape, with the hope of entering future “Masters” biathlons, perhaps even triathlons, even though my swimming skills need work.  With many hills and miles run, though, and many cricket games played, some parts will eventually hurt; badly!
Thus, I ride much these days for fitness, 25-30 miles each time, four times per week, on a perfectly made, massive, expensive too, Raleigh Airlite road racer.  I plan to get a Trek Cronus soon.  It is thrilling stuff, but, in the Caribbean, unsafe.  Friends have been injured, and killed, on roads in Guyana and T&T!
In Australia and United States, there are specific bike trails, where no pedestrians or especially motorized vehicles can access.  Instead of using zillions to build white elephant cricket and football stadia, which will be used, at most, twice a year, politicians could build bike trails in the Caribbean too!
I grew up in Guyana seeing George “Boy Blue” Cumberbatch and “Boogie” DeFreitas tussling hard with Trinidad & Tobago’s Roger Gibbons at the parched and billiard-table smooth Bourda cricket ground.  I saw T&T’s Leslie King and Emile Abraham on the road, and at T&T’s Guaracara Park cricket ground.
Former Guyana champion Neville Hunte was an acquaintance until he migrated, and disappeared, while former T&T’s champions Gene Samuels and Michael Phillips own excellent cycle stores that help keep me, and many others, on the road.  Just listening to them talk about cycling is real inspiration for me!
I was even fortunate enough to be present at 2007 Tour de France’s start, which set off from London’s Trafalgar Square, the first time that that race was begun in London in its over 100 years history!
I truly wonder how Belgian Eddie Merckx, Spain’s Miguel Indurain and Alberto Contador, Germany’s Jan Ullrich, Britain’s Mark Cavendish and USA’s Lance Armstrong, competed, completed, and won, so very regularly, Tour de France races; almost too easily.  Those must have been super-human efforts!
Even with my comparatively mild involvement in road cycling and racing, I can well understand how difficult professional cycling can be.  Two hours per day, every other day, is good enough for me.  Two consecutive weeks in any saddle could do serious damage to any, probably all, parts of my body!
Yet, only last week, Armstrong, Ullrich and Contador have been involved in drug doping situations.  Fortunately for Lance, despite many team-mates coming forward and fully admitting that they had seen him taking drugs, investigations by USA’s FBI into Armstrong’s team’s activities have been put aside.
Not so lucky for UIlrich and Contador.  Jan, who retired in 2007, has been banned for two years for blood doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.  His results from 2005 onwards have been annulled.
Contador, still active, suffered even worse fates.  The 2010 Tour de France winner has been stripped of that crown, and has also been banned by CAS, for blood doping, until 05 August.  More importantly, he will miss London 2012 Olympics and Tour De France 2012.  Those results are extremely sad for cycling!
Why these choices?  What is it about drugs and sports?  If you can, be ‘clean’, please, but still enjoy!

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