Verma plays Nero as cause of sport goes up in flames

‘‘One should compliment the sports ministry and IOA for acting together against doping,’’ Verma told The Indian Express on Friday. In the course of the conversation, he did not for a minute indicate that anyone other than athletes could have been involved in the doping.

When this correspondent sought to emphasise the point of widening the ring of suspicion, the minister’s answer was blithe: ‘‘I don’t think any coach or official is involved. If athletes were compelled to take drugs for the National Games, why didn’t they complain at that time? Why are they making the accusations now?’’

Verma appears a good man but he is either obtuse or blinkered: given the culture of patronage in the Indian sports world, where officials and coaches pull every string possible, does he expect the athletes to name names and risk losing it all?

There was no way, Verma said, that they received support from officials and/or the SAI. ‘‘For the National Games, the athletes were training in their respective states. Where is the involvement of the NIS training centre or Sports Authority of India’’, he asked. However, he preferred to overlook the fact that some of the athletes — Kavita Pandya, Udayalakshmi, Jagdish Basak and Hridyanand — were regulars at the national camp, where they spent much of the year getting exposure to every means of improving their performance. That point of view is the minister’s prerogative but he is on shaky ground when he asserts, erroneously, that doping takes place more at the junior level as youngsters are not aware about the consequences. ‘‘How many top athletes have been caught? It’s mostly the juniors who are getting into the habit.’’

Minutes later, this paper was privy to a report, freshly arrived, that top weightlifter Sanamacha Chanu had tested positive at last month’s nationals. Last year, two Indian lifters tested positive at the Commonwealth Games and Sunita Rani had tested for steroids at the Asian Games.

And the long list of Indians caught at top international events dates back to 1986.

Yet Verma appears bullish on the wherewithal to fight the menace. ‘‘We are expanding our system and we might even get another lab for testing,’’ he said. About time, too. Though international rules say dope test results should be reported in 48 hours, the results from the infamous Hyderabad National Games took more than four months to be declared.

And his pat on the back for the IOA’s dope-control efforts didn’t ring very true: more than a year later, it still hasn’t announced the names of 19 athletes who had tested positive at the National Games held in Punjab.