Is gene doping a reality?

Why We Should Fight Gene Doping


Gene therapy is a superb scientific advancement and could be a blessing to those suffering from genetic disorder or untreatable diseases. But it could lead to gene doping, which can ride piggyback on its exploits to create super athletes. We need to prevent gene doping even before it takes off.



It is good to live in a world without disease or sickness. Or in a world where you can go to a doctor and be cured of many illnesses caused by genetic disorder with just one shot.

It is good, indeed. Thanks to the latest technology of gene therapy, which manipulates the human genome to prevent or cure diseases.

Gene therapy is so fast advancing that in the not-too-remote future we may not worry about some of the terrible diseases that have blighted us.

No Parkinson’s Disease. No cystic fibrosis. No muscular dystrophy. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

But there is a flip side to it.

Imagine, records are being rewritten left, right and centre at Beijing Olympics 2008 as a clutch of athletes defies all logic to clock some astonishing timings. The anti-doping agency has no clue to what has made these men and women ‘super-athletes’. All conventional dope tests show negative.

What is the matter?

Yes, it could be the arrival of super-athletes – the next-generation cheats.

Gene therapy which looks a blessing to get rid of genetic disorders and some deadly diseases can lead to gene doping to create these super-athletes.

Gene doping is the next step for an athlete who now uses erythropoietin (EPO) to enhance performance. Instead of injecting themselves with the EPO, they would inject with the gene that produces the EPO, allowing the body to naturally produce more red blood cells.

If gene doping can be a reality, there is no doubt that the cheats who now use the conventional methods to enhance performance will approach some unscrupulous scientists. For some of them the temptation to become faster, stronger and subsequently richer and more famous through tinkering with their genes will be too strong to resist.

But those who care about integrity and fair play in sport don’t have to worry. Someone is keeping a track of gene therapy advancement and its potential lead to gene doping. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Montreal-headquartered global body to fight against doping in sport, has vowed to do all it can to fight the next-generation cheats.

In 2002, WADA brought together leaders in sport and science for a conference at the Banbury Centre on Long Island. The aim of the conference was to place gene doping on the map.

In an exchange of knowledge and ideas, those in sport learned how far science has advanced in gene therapy and the scientists realised how far some athletes will go to be the best. To their shock, they heard from their colleagues who had already had calls from coaches and trainers to know how gene therapy can be used to enhance the performance of their wards.

Here is the danger. Gene therapy could be good news, but human greed can ride piggyback on its exploits.

Richard W Pound, chairman of WADA, says: “It (Banbury conference) was an eye-opening event for all of us, and led to the inclusion of gene doping as a prohibited method on the 2003 Prohibited List of Substances and Methods…Some disreputable labs would be willing to replicate the technology for performance enhancement – for the right price. As dangerous and wrong as traditional doping is, it is hard to conceive what the consequences could be of altering a person’s genetic makeup just to make him better in sports. This is a slippery slope we do not ever want to go down.”

However, gene therapy and gene doping are not as simple as they sound. It involves a profound technology. According to Dr Theodore Friedmann, director of gene therapy programme at the University of California, San Diego, and a foremost expert in genetic research, it is extremely difficult to transfer the underlying basic scientific technology into human beings, whether they be sick people or athletes.

“For humans, gene therapy remains very immature, experimental and highly risky. In the US, thousands of patients have been enrolled in clinical trials in the last decade and most of these studies have not shown any striking therapeutic benefit to patients. In fact, some serious adverse events, including deaths, have occurred. The bottom line is that everything gets complicated when you move from the laboratory into a human being. We don’t have the technology yet in hand to ensure a predictable and adequate level of safety to feel comfortable to using gene transfer technology in anyone other than in a patient with a serious or untreatable disease,” he says.

What Is Gene Therapy?

Before we go deeper into the clinical and moral implications of gene doping, let’s understand what gene therapy is all about.

We are, mostly, what our genes are. From the way we look to how good we are at athletics or studies, to what disease we might develop depend largely on our genes. Most of our predominant traits are determined by our genes, with a minor contribution from our environment.

Genes, which are composed of segments of our DNA, are the instruction sheets for the proteins they produce. It is these proteins that build our cells and instruct them how to function.

When a particular gene is missing or defective either through inheritance or by exposure to chemical products or radiation, production of proteins is affected and the result is disease.

Scientists are studying ways in which gene therapy can work.

A normal gene may be inserted into cells of patients or directly into the patient’s genome to replace or repair a gene that does not work properly. When inserting a new, normal gene, scientists use a gene transport method, known as vector, to deliver the gene into the genome. The most common way is to use a disable virus that has been altered to not be harmful in itself but just to act as a moving van to deliver normal DNA to the cell.

Dr Friedmann, who also chairs WADA’s panel on gene doping, adds: “The viruses are like Trojan horses. They carry the genes into the targeted cells and unload the normal genes, which can then begin to function and produce the necessary proteins and enzymes.”

Though it may sound a simple as loading and unloading some stuff, it is an extremely difficult process, with no evidence of therapeutic effect in many hundreds of attempts.

Is Gene Doping A Reality?

The question is, if gene therapy itself is such a complicated and high-end technology with little scope, as of yet, of success, why should we lose sleep over gene doping?

The answer is, it could be a reality, especially when we consider the rate at which science is advancing in this field.

Mr Pound in one of his editorials in WADA’s official magazine Play true writes: “As the Olympic Games in Athens wrapped up last summer, I was frequently asked one question by journalists who were already thinking ahead to the Beijing Games: Could there be genetic doping by 2008? The idea that genetically-altered athletes could be competing at the Olympics in Beijing is disturbing but not out of the realm of possibility.”

Dr Oliver Rabin, WADA’s science director, says: “Most doping is the misuse and abuse of medicines normally used for therapeutic purposes. Many of the substances used for doping actually represent great steps forward in the fields of science and medicine. But they are being wrongly used to enhance athletic performance. The same may become true of gene doping.”

Mr Pound adds: “We know the threat of gene doping is very real. We need to start fighting this now, before it becomes a reality. It is easier to prevent a problem than it is to solve it.”

However, Dr Friedmann says there is no proof that gene doping has happened. “We don’t know for sure. We have no proof that it has happened, but we think it is likely to happen.”

He however says that gene doping won’t replace traditional drug doping because gene-based approaches will be more difficult. “But as technology advances, there will be those with means and motivation who will be willing to try.”

However, Thomas H Murray, president of The Hastings Centre and a bioethics expert, argues that gene doping is not an imminent threat to sport, but “it has the potential to dramatically affect the Olympic Games many years hence unless steps are taken now.”

That is the threat. We cannot rein in man’s craving for fame and money. It is his lust and pride that drive him to many unethical acts. And, that’s the danger. Experts have already predicted that rogue labs will pop up, in the US and around the world, which will be ready to experiment with gene doping, and will make the “facility” available to athletes, no matter how dangerous it could be, for the right price.

Dr Friedmann is worried that these unregulated laboratories will not be concerned about safety and, sadly, not about informed consent from athletes.

In that case, can genetically-altered athletes be detected? Is it possible to make out whether an athlete has a “foreign gene”? After all, when a gene is inserted into the body, it becomes part of the genome. It should be giving the athlete and his accomplices a sense of security.

But WADA’s director general Mr David Howman says it is a false security. “Those who think they can cheat using gene transfer technology will be in for a rude surprise.” He underlines that it is the priority for “WADA and our partners to make sure gene doping is as detectable as any form of traditional doping.”

The agency is funding five projects in different parts of the world. They are:

 Manipulation of muscle mass via the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor (GF-1) axis (UK)
 Application of microarray technology for the detection of changes in gene expression after doping with recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) (Austria)
 Microarray detection methods for growth hormone and insulin-like IGF-1 (USA)
 IMAGENE: non-invasive molecular imaging of gene expression useful for doping control, pilot study in animals after erythropoietin gene transfer. (Spain)
 The application of cellular chemistry and proteomic approaches to the detection of gene doping (UK)

These projects will help scientists detect the effects of a new or foreign gene in an athlete’s body. Researchers are looking at ways in which changes to the genome can be detected through blood testing. Another unique idea being looked at is imaging, where a process similar to magnetic resonance imaging would be used to scan the body and search for unusual location of gene expression.

So, the super cheats cannot be complacent after all. Dr Friedmann is aggressive in his warning to the potential frauds. “I would like to send a shot across the bow of those who think we will not be able to detect gene doping. My advice to them is: Don’t be so sure – this is a very dangerous road to proceed on, and we will be ready to halt the traffic.”

- With inputs from Play true article on gene doping.
(Cover story, Sports Today, January 2006)

Guile and Greatness

We get excited easily, don’t we? When I watched Floyd Landis surging ahead in the last phase of the Tour de France like a soul-in-chase, I got excited.
That’s how sports journalists live. On excitement, and adjectives.

The Mennonite good boy, with a degenerative hip and the epic race, had forced me break my promise of a family outing. I read up his details like a studious schoolboy.

I picked out adjectives, serenaded with sentences, till the news hit me flush on the face. The guy was ‘on it’.

I felt the frustration of the cheated. The pain gnawed at my heart. My adjectives paled into irrelevance. Sentences crumbled like wafers.

The greatest comeback story in Europe’s most popular sporting event has fallen flat. We are back to the familiar cycle of allegations and denials. Sample A and Sample B. IOC, WADA and UCI.

Boy, haven’t we heard all these many times?

Then cropped up Mr Gatlin, from nowhere, to say he too was tested positive for testosterone. Gatlin, of all people, who has been trumpeting the virtues of clean win?

Then the turn of Trevor Graham, Gatlin’s coach, to come up with a sabotage theory. A mystic masseur rubbing testosterone onto his champion ward. It is hard to believe, but you never know what these people do in the greenroom.

Graham’s past does not favour his future. He has been involved with at least half a dozen athletes who have received drug suspensions. The International Association of Athletics Federation and US Anti-Doping Agency say they will penalise him if Gatlin is found guilty. Gatlin, who has once tested positive, can be banned for life.

Sports lawyers give both Landis and Gatlin little chance of redemption. We don’t know. We don’t know anything at all.

We get excited. Moronic?

Let’s talk about something pleasant.

I heaved a sigh of relief when Roger Federer, finally, broke the jinx against Rafael Nadal. Not that Nadal is an upstart. He is an exciting facet but Federer had to win.

Okay, we give it to the Spaniard when he played like a dream to win the French Open. His attire suits muddy boots and red socks.

But the “grasshopper” must have his revenge when the ball rolls on the grass. The Wimbledon oozes tradition and history. Agreed, an overgrown teenager won it more than 20 years ago and defended it the next year. But Boris Becker was born to play on grass. Nadal is not Becker on grass.

The Swiss star, at the time of writing this a couple of months ago, was in Dubai. He was staying in one of the beach hotels. Wonder why he had chosen to fly into the heat while every other man flies out of the country to escape sun-stroke. But Federer is not every other man.

The world of sports can be funny, too.

Tiger Woods did not forget to text Annika Sorenstam, in case she didn’t know that he has won one more major. When winning is routine, sending sms might thrill the champions.

Or leaking e-mails, should I say?

Life between 317, 119 and 310

On that Sunday evening I was spoilt for choice. As an incorrigible sports fan, I could not have asked for more.

Thanks to E-vision, though I had to cough up Dhs500 for a World Cup upgrade. On channel 310, I had that deadly pair – Federer and Nadal – playing another classic on French clay. Surf down to 119, and Indian batsmen were making merry at St. Lucia. Run down to 317, there was live action from Mexico versus Iran.

I passionately wanted the gentle Swiss to get this one through the matador boy. Federer is all today’s class but Nadal is what tomorrow will look like. While Federer skimmed on clay like a dream, Nadal whacked the tennis ball as hard as a Gordon Greenidge square cut. His meaty left hand swivelled like a mighty windmill and unleashed awesome power into his shots. He chased down the ball with the vigour of a bull and cracked it back in unbelievable angles. The deeper Federer placed his sumptuous volleys – on the fringes of the baseline – the better the boy returned.

He has an uncanny ability to beat Federer. The way the world champion played in the first set, Nadal did not stand a chance – he was outplayed and outclassed. But the Spaniard rallied as if he was powered by an in-built motor.

As I had begun to get lost in their world of mastery and muscle, cricket tempted.

The way the Indians batted in the second Test forced me to gather some wool on a tanking theory. The team which beat Pakistan 4-1 in Pakistan and stunned a higher-ranked Sri Lanka at home had to play abysmally to lose the series 1-4 against the West Indians. Was there any script to act out? I am thinking the unthinkable.
At St. Lucia, Sehwag woke up from a prolonged slumber and mid-summer dream of drought, and blitzed his way to a big hundred. He took apart Dwain Bravo for no reason other than characteristic belligerence. Skipper Dravid was back in his office, and Kaif treaded into the Test hundred territory.

I loved watching Federer’s poetry, and Nadal’s exuberance. But football beckoned and I flipped the channels and almost missed Mexico’s first goal by a whisker. I flipped back and watched Federer’s signature volley in replay. How could I ignore my first love – cricket? I raced up the list, and caught Kaif on an off-driving spree.

The St. Lucia pitch was as clumsy as a bad haircut. Lara – hamstrung by the absence of the injured Fido Edwards – had a toothless attack. None of the fast bowlers, except Pedro Collins, could induce an edge from the Indians. The pitch looked as flat as my frying pan.

Federer was losing – more than Nadal was winning. I remembered what the Spaniard said of Federer after beating him in Dubai earlier this year. “He is the best. I am his fan.” That’s humility. And, Federer, who habitually beats every other player on the earth, feels he has to improve his game because Nadal repeatedly gets the better of him. That’s, again, humility.

Finally, the boy did it. He defended his crown. He threw his racket away, pulled off his head and wrist bands and lay, all limbs stretched, on the dirt. He rolled over and got up smeared in red clay. As he climbed up the stands to hug and kiss his family, kids rubbed themselves against his sweaty biceps.

The Mexicans won the match and the Iranians the hearts. The Indians built up a pile of runs. Dravid got out to the worst ball he had faced – a wild, hopeless away turner pitched under his own nose by part-time leggie Sarwan. Dravid stretched out to eternity and scooped it to an amused Lara at gully.

Federer and Nadal left the monitor. Portugal and Angola came out to settle their old colonial score. The Indians got rid of Ganga, Sarwan and Lara. And, I woke up in the wee hours of the next day and found myself asleep in the drawing room.

(On an evening during the Fifa World Cup 2006)

Black Or White

I Said If
You’re Thinkin’ Of
Being My Brother
It Don’t Matter If You’re
Black Or White

- Michael Jackson’s Black or White



“I want respect…only respect.”

This is the cry of a humiliated young footballer.

Marc Zoro, a defender from Ivory Coast who plays for Messina in Italian league, is in tears as Inter Milan fans shout racial chants at him. Zoro, 21, was abused earlier in Sicily. He refuses to take it this time. Zoro picks up the ball, walks off to hand it over to the fourth referee. Inter players intervene, apologising for their foul-mouthed fans, to calm Zoro down.

An injured Makhaya Ntini, South Africa’s first black Test player, hobbles to the crease. Shane Warne shouts to his team-mates to “get this John Blackman out”. Ntini cannot get the pun. He is offended.
American multiple Grand Slam winner Serena Williams is jeered the moment she appears on court and is booed throughout during the Indian Wells tournament in 2001. Venus (Serena’s sister) and her father are walking down the stairs to their seats, when one guy shouts from the gallery, ‘I wish it was ’75 (referring to the Los Angeles race riots); we’d skin you alive.’”
In a riot of colours, we deal with black and white.

If sports were racially biased, Jesse Owens would not have embarrassed Adolf Hitler and his “Aryan theory” in 1936 Berlin Olympics; Brian Lara would have crossed Allan Border as the highest Test run getter; Tiger Woods would not have electrified the golf courses; Serena and Venus would not have stocked their home with Grand Slams; and Asafa Powell and a host of black sprinters would not have ruled the roost in 100 metres.

The pity is that we still go by the colour of our skin. Our dreams and fantasies are as heartening as the promise of a rainbow. But we let ourselves down with our petty sense of colour. We have reasons to blame ourselves.

Cancer on Football

The New Year is a World Cup year. Thirty-two teams from across the world have secured a birth in the grandest spectacle of sports to be held this June in Germany.

But all is not well with the “Beautiful Game”. The increasing incidents of racial abuse in football across Europe are a concern to all. From Spain to the UK, France to The Netherlands racism in football has taken a dangerous dimension.

Black footballers in Europe, especially in Spain and Italy, are easy targets of racial abuse. In recent years, even some of the best players like Thierry Henry – only a few players can hold a candle to him in football skills – have been subjected to the ugly chants of racist fans.

In November 2004 during a friendly between England and Spain at Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, several black players in the England side were booed each time they touched the ball. The racial epithets that the Spanish fans shouted made the headline across the UK. Surprisingly, little did it reflect in the Spanish media.

Early last year, when Barcelona came to Bernabeu to play archrival Real Madrid, Cameroon international and prolific scorer in Spanish Primera Liga Samuel Eto’o was the target. Every time he kicked the ball, the crowd mimicked monkey noises. Across Spain, black players have repeatedly been abused by the “vulgar mobs”.

It is shocking to know that the racial taunts come not just from the crowd but from the very helm of Spanish team. Luis Aragones, the national coach, was fined by the Fifa $3,500 for referring to Thierry Henry as “black shit” in his address to his team. The fine was equal to only a day’s salary the coach earned. Fifa should not make themselves a butt of ridicule with similar acts of “benevolence”.

Racism has long been a menace in Italian football as well. When Udinese were to sign Israeli striker Ronnie Rosenthal in 1990, the club’s right-wing fans staged massive protests. In the end, the club had to give in, and Rosenthal went to Liverpool.

Racial discrimination is an evil that blinds us. At times it defies all logic. Perugia’s dark-skinned midfielder, Fabio Liverani, was a target of racist abuse all over the country, despite being an Italian and has played for the national team. England’s Emile Heskey too bore the brunt of racial abuse when England played in Italy a couple of years ago.

During a Roma-Lazio match, the Lazio fans came up with a choreography of blue-and-white placards which spelt the word merda (shit). There were also banners which said, “squadra di negri (team of blacks). During the match, Roma’s black players Aldair, Cafu and Jonathan Zebina were booed and abused.

Last February during a Getafe-Real Madrid match, Daniel Kome, the Cameroonian-born Getafe midfielder, was subjected to so much racial abuse by the crowd that the El Pais reporter Diego Torres commented: “Eight out of 10 people were monkey chanting. It was more or less the whole stadium. Even the VIP section was monkey chanting. Most of the crowd was middle class, even upper class.”
It’s not only the crowd who wear their emotions and beliefs on their sleeve. Players too contribute to stoke the racial flames.
End of last year, Lazio’s Di Canio, who won a Fifa Fair Play award in 2001, was banned for one match after performing a Nazi salute to fans for the second week in succession. The 39-year-old former Italian international was also fined €8 000. It was the third time last year that Di Canio had made the fascist gesture. In March, he was fined €10 000 for giving a similar Nazi salute. Crowd behaviour may be beyond a club’s control, but the players should show more responsibility in their public conduct.
This has to be rooted out of sports. But unfortunately both Spanish and Italian governments are relatively lethargic, unlike the British, in pulling up and punishing the racial abusers. Britain has tough legal measures to confront the racists in sports like in any other fabric of society.

World Cup Worry

It is worrying to note that extreme right groups from Eastern Europe are planning racial abuses at England’s black footballers during the World Cup in Germany. The Sunday Times has revealed its investigative reports saying that gangs from Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic have held meetings and agreed to bury their traditional rivalries to aim at a “common enemy”.
The newspaper has quoted Radi Jiricna, a Czech organiser of the “United Fascist Brigade”, saying, “We will be coming together to fight in Germany, our spiritual home. We are looking for black English players because they are taking the places of white players.”
The paper has also given details of a meeting held in Serbia two months ago between six Czech skinheads and the Delije, the notoriously violent supporters of Red Star Belgrade. They have also met a group of hooligans from Croatia.
A pitched battle in a football stadium between Red Star fans and a rival Croatian club was one of the sparks that led to the Balkan wars 15 years ago.
“Germany will be one big battleground this summer. This is an opportunity for our groups to shout our message and to know people will hear it,” said one of the Serbian organisers, Dragan Banovic.
“There will be many more in Germany who will have sympathy with us and we think we will be able to cause many problems for the police. Our targets are the black players and those who follow them. The black players from England will be a good target for us because they will react to what we shout and to the banners we will be carrying. We will be throwing more than bananas at them,” he added.
The thugs have also said that they will overcome the measures intended to prevent them from buying tickets, and will fight outside the stadiums. They plan to link up with like-minded hooligans from Italy’s notorious extremist groups to create “Ultras United”.
However, European police chiefs had met in London last month to discuss ways to confront the threat from the fascist groups. But it reminds to be seen how effectively they can keep the fascist groups under control during the month-long World Cup.
¬
It’s Not Cricket

Cricket is another sport where we have seen racial discrimination raking its ugly head now and then.

The West Indian cricketers of yore and the coloured players in South Africa during the apartheid were treated as second-class players and were not given the opportunity to represent their national teams.

The Carribean Islands, once ruled by the British, have produced some of the best cricketers to play the game. But however good the native players were during the Saheb’s rule, they were looked down upon and were preferred only after the white players.

CLR James in his classic Beyond A Boundary has quoted Keith Miller on the issue. Miller writes: “…Another problem with West Indies cricket is that the captain has usually been chosen from among the European stock. Just think of the most famous West Indies cricketers…Learie Constantine, George Headley, Frank Worrell, Everton Weeks, Clyde Walcott…all are coloured, but none has led the country.

James gives more insights into the subject. “One evening in British Guiana we were talking about captaincy. Suddenly Clyde, who is always circumspect in his speech, blurted out: ‘You know who will be the captain in England in 1963? You see that Barbados boy, Bynoe, who went to India? He only has to make fifty in one innings and he will be the captain.’ Bynoe is white.”

Former England all-rounder Ian Botham, who is a good friend of his Somerset team-mate Viv Richards, once said the reason he did not want to tour South Africa (during the apartheid era) was that if he did, he could not look Richards in his eye. Colour of the skin, what else, is the matter here. Botham and Richard, two lion-hearted cricketers have shown us that it is possible to have friendship and respect across culture and colour.

South Africa during the apartheid was a sore thumb in world of sports. Their racist stand against the black and coloured players had snowballed into an international issue and had even threatened to sever their bilateral ties. The infamous Basil d’Oliviera Affair was a shameful incident. The South African-born all-rounder, who was given a new lease of playing life in England thanks to the efforts of commentator and writer John Arlott, was included in the England team that toured South Africa in 1968-69 But the then South African prime minister BJ Vorster wrote to his English counterpart saying “it was not an MCC team but an anti-apartheid team”. An international hue and cry followed, resulting in the cancellation of the tour. The incident led to South Africa’s isolation from international sports for two decades.

With the apartheid era is now history and the African National Congress in power, things have changed. Though there are rumours of “reverse racism” now, it is heartening to see black and coloured players joining hands with the white players to play for their country.

Interestingly, the coloured South African players touring Australia have complained about more than one incident of racial taunts from the spectators. This should not be allowed. It is a clear take on what is happening across Europe during football matches.

Lily-white sport

Until the Williams sisters emerged, the only black Grand Slam winners were Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah. Tennis, it is often said, is a predominantly white middle-class sport.

We can argue that things have begun to change of late. But, overwhelmingly, a black champion is a rarity. Martin Jacques, in his article in the Guardian (Tennis is racist – it’s time we did something about it; dated June 27, 2003), writes on the bitter experiences Williams sisters have gone through. “The antipathy of a tennis crowd is hardly a new experience for Williams sisters. In the semi-finals of the US Open last year (2002), the American crowd supported Amelie Mauresmo of France rather than Venus: for the overwhelmingly white, middle-class crowd, the bond of colour clearly counted for more than the bond of nation.”

Jacques categorically argues that the sport is rife with racist innuendos. He goes on to say, “Race courses through the veins of tennis, people pretend it doesn’t exist”. He adds: “The Williams sisters, together with their father, are subjected to a steady stream of criticism, denigration, accusation and innuendo: their physique is somehow an unfair advantage (those of Afro descent are built differently), they are arrogant and aloof (they are proud and self-confident), they are not popular with the other players (they come from a very different culture and, let us not forget, there is plenty of evidence of racism among their colleagues: comments made by Martina Hingis spring to mind, not to mention the behaviour of Lleyton Hewitt towards a black linesman in 2002 US Open.”

Williams sisters, who come from a Los Angeles ghetto riven by drugs and guns, have shown enormous degree of determination, verve and skill to dominate the sport. Though there are disapproving remarks in the tennis fraternity and media about the attitude of Richard Williams, who called tennis “lily-white sport”, and his daughters, there is no dispute to the fact that the sisters had to fight off more than their rivals on the court to come up the ladder.

The American Story

The fabric of America has been woven with the delicate and dangerous threads of racial issues. It’s a country which has grappled with the monster of racial bias and unrest and has integrated itself into a “zero tolerant” to any kind of discrimination.

The history of black Americans, especially that of the players, is one of unenviable fight for representation and equality. “More than any other dimension of life, sports had projected black people into the white consciousness.”

Apart from the political leaders like Martin Luther Kind Jr, who personified the black cause, there were sports heroes like Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player; Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who gave a Black Power Salute after winning the 200 metres in 1968 Olympics; and the inimitable Muhammad Ali who threw away his Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio river in protest against racial discrimination.

The Civil Rights Acts in 1964 and 1968 and Voting Rights Acts of 1965 eliminated the last bastions of “segregation”. In the more recent years, black athletes and players have dominated the NBA, NFL and the track and field, and are some of the richest people in the country.

But some still feel if we look beyond the peripheral of political correctness, there are subtle themes of racism. To quote a participant in a discussion group: “Racism exists in American sports. It’s just much more covert. Political correctness and integration of the major sports have gone a long way towards cleaning up public behavior but it has not changed private attitudes. Sit in any stadium and you will hear racist remarks from the fans. Walk in any locker room and you will see black, white and Latino players segregate themselves. Listen under players’ breathe and you will hear racial and sexual slurs. The public face has changed, but the private one remains the same. And, it is scarier because it allows us to continue believing we have somehow overcome racism.”

The Outcry

Cricket legends like Sir Viv Richards have urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Fifa to do more to rid sports of racism. “This matter of black players being subjected to abuse must be urgently addressed by the people who are in charge of the footballing and cricketing bodies,” Richards said in the wake of the South African players’ experience at the hands of Australian crowd.

Richards, who once “grovelled” the English attack taking offence at a comment from England’s captain Tony Greig, said that there should be zero tolerance to racial remarks from the crowd He said: “There must be plain-clothed officers placed in the crowd, and when you hear that first remark an example must be made of the perpetrator and it must be done swift and quick. I believe the governing bodies have been sitting around for too long.”
ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed has said that there was no place for racism in cricket.
“Cricket is an international game which is played by a diverse range of cultures and communities. Respect for each other is a key component of the game and racist comments have no place in cricket,” he said.
“The fact that this is an isolated incident by a small number of people in one country does not lessen the game's resolve to address the issue. We have in place an international anti-racism policy which all of our Members have signed up to.”
The racial taunts at football venues worldwide have prompted Fifa President Sepp Blatter to threaten clubs with relegation, suspension, and expulsion if they fail to control racist fans.
Both fifa and Uefa have said they are determined to eradicate racism in the sport.
“We are prepared to implement the necessary sanctions, from fines and closure of stadiums, and even to not allow teams to participate in competitions,” Uefa vice-president Per Ravn Omdal has said. “Referees will be given the necessary power to abandon or cancel matches if necessary. We need referees and match officials to be tough on this issue. If they have been asleep then they need to wake up.”
There have been some talks about “reverse racism”. Cricketers in Zimbabwe have complained about racial discrimination at the hands of officials representing the Robert Mugabe government. Quota system in South African cricket has also come under flak from those who believe it is not the colour of the skin but talent which should be the criterion for team selection.
Agreed. If any white player in Zimbabwe is racially abused, it should not be condoned.
The world has shrunk into a global village, and boundaries have blurred. Immigrants across the globe have tilted demographic balance and triggered xenophobic responses.

Cultural and racial differences are standing out, despite our efforts to paint a rosy picture of a secular, peaceful world strung together by love. Sports is a fine slice of the society; it is a thermometer that shows our racial temperature.

Irrespective of stardom and high profile, black athletes have come across discrimination. Even the best of them have to live with it.

American tennis player, the late Arthur Ashe, respected during his day and even now as an icon of courtly, genteel sportsmanship, did not delude himself that fan adoration meant racial acceptance. After he disclosed in 1992 that he had AIDS, a reporter for People magazine asked him: “Mr. Ashe, I guess this (AIDS) must be the heaviest burden you have ever had to bear?”
Ashe replied: “Not at all. Being black is the greatest burden I’ve had to bear. Even now it continues to feel like an extra weight tied around me.”

Sports no longer is the stuff for back pages. It plays an important role in our society. Sports heroes are household names. Our kids adore them. They try to emulate them. Since it holds a major section in our social fabric, we should not pretend that it – be it any sport – is a race-free zone.

It is time we admitted, and acted to make ourselves colour blind. Let’s make performance our inspiration to cheer or jeer. Football and cricket have caught our attention with their disgusting racial underbelly. There are other sports too where we can, if we listen carefully, hear the whispers of racial abuse.

We have a tolerant, secular façade, but beneath the obvious there are layers of prejudice based on culture and colour.

It is sad that in the colourful world of sports, we see only black or white.

(Cover story, Sports Today, February, 2006)

Have a jolly heave

How many times have I promised myself to do it! I have injected energy into my veins and infused courage into my heart; and I have gone around sports shops and picked up good-looking and comfortable apparel to suit the occasion.

But somehow I couldn’t do it so far.

I’m not talking about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or going on a Kenyan Safari. It’s just about playing golf. Picking up a club and going for a mighty heave, that’s all. Yes, the nuances of the game are there to learn but to get started all you need is to whack the little ball away into the bushes and go searching for it.

In the past two months, I’ve had three invites to play golf. I had to be honest and tell the hosts of the events that I’m used to Kashmir willow and leather ball rather than titanium club and dimple ball.

“I’m a cricketer,” I’ve told them, trying to convince them that not playing golf in Dubai is not sin. But the intensity and the surprise of the girls at the other end of the phone make me think twice.

“You mean you haven’t played it at least once?” I regretted the decision to carry some good golf stories in Sports Today. That has done me in. One girl said: “I was going through the magazine and am happy to read the golf stories. By the way, we have an event coming up and would like to invite you to come and play.” My smile withered even before it was fully bloomed.

I have walked one whole day with none other than Mr Tiger Woods when he came to Dubai Desert Classic last time. I mean, he walked on the fairway and I was a speck in the crowd. But I did try to catch up with the master.

My old buddy with whom I have played innumerable club matches on the dusty pitches in India said it was shame on me not to play golf. He has learnt the fine art of chatting with the who’s who in town on Dubai courses even though he is yet to get his swing right. But that’s a small issue, he says. It is easy for us who have been swinging our cricket bat wildly at a moving ball, he argues.

I can remember the number of times I have swung my SG bat and heard the unsettling sound of unsettled stumps behind me. Recently, spurred by my nephew, I made the mistake of playing cricket with his colleagues. I didn’t know that he had hyped about his uncle. After watching other batsmen carting huge sixes over midwicket as easy as pulling out a facial tissue, I walked in one down. The air, so to say, was thick with anticipation. I saw my nephew waiting for his uncle to unleash those vintage stuff. I saw a big fellow running in with the ball. And, that’s all I saw. Then, I heard the rattle of timber, and the sickening hustle of celebration. I looked up and saw my nephew kicking the wall in embarrassment.
All I could do was walk back like Sachin Tendulkar, pursing my lips in lofty seriousness.

Is it mandatory to play golf in Dubai? I’m afraid it is.