STEROIDS? SLEDGING? -- THEY ARE ALL THE SAME

Here is a short description of what steroids can do.
"Do you know that steroids can also be good for you? Doctors give them to you for rashes and allergies. Did you know that asthma is the most common kid disease in the whole world? Five million kids in the U.S. get it. Certain steroids are a safe way to treat asthma in kids, but they do have side effects ........ There are some good things about steroids and so many bad things. A good thing is it can treat asthma safely. A bad thing is that your kidneys, liver, and stomach can be destroyed. Too many steroids can destroy your mind. If people take illegal steroids, they will have mood swings. You can be very violent or depressed so much that you might kill yourself. Steroids are taken to strengthen muscles, but they can damage them, too. Steroids can cause heart disease and cancer. They can also make a young child stop growing." (http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112390/steroids.htm)

Use of steroids in sports is covered under the generic term of 'doping'. "In sports, doping refers to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, particularly those forbidden by organizations that regulate competitions. Doping is considered unethical by most international sports organizations and especially the International Olympic Committee. The reasons are mainly the health threat of performance-enhancing drugs, the equality of opportunity of the athletes and the exemplary effect of "clean" (doping-free) sports in the public." (Wikipedia)

Recent spate of doping scandals show how much this scurge of drugs has invaded the field of sports, particularly athletics. The ideal for athletes was set by Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern olympic movement, with his Olympic motto -- Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger." A more informal well known motto, also introduced by De Coubertin, is "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!". The idea is that the athletes should strive to improve on their own performances from day to day, year to year and so on, in a natural way through proper nutrition and exercise, and not really compete in an aggressive way to win at any cost.. However, athletes being human beings with the attendant weaknesses, began experimenting with chemical drugs to build their muscles, improve their physique, acquire some strength artificially and so on, so that they can perform better than their competitors. Even though this went against the spirit of the atletics movement, the administrators turned a blind eye to it initially till they began understanding the deleterious effects the drugs had on the health of the athletes, as well as the unfair advantage it gave them over other athletes who were not contaminated. Since then they have started clamping down heavily on such unhealthy and illegal methods. So much so they have even altered the Olympic oath taken by athletes at every Olympic meet to include a clause against drug usage. The revised oath reads as, "In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams."

Well, what has all this got to do with 'sledging'. The simple fact that both sledging and doping have the same end result in view. "I must win at any cost. I must put one over the opponent, by any means, fair or foul." In doping one increases once own strength and performing ability by unfair means so that the opponent is not able to compete on an equal footing. In sledging one uses abusive and aggressive language and behaviour against the opponent so that he is mentally upset and is not able to perform normally to his true potential. It is in effect equivalent to injecting a poison in the opponent's body and mind, and so affect his ability to perform. This is in fact worse than doping.

Isn't it a pity that Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and the entire Aussie cricket team and their administrators are so pessimistic about their own skills, so unsure of their own ability to win, so scared of the skills of the opponents that they have decided they cannot win on the strength of their own skills without resorting to such underhand methods like sledging? Isn't it Steve Waugh who defined sledging as the art of causing "mental disorientation", "mental disintegration" of the opponent? What a glorious aim!! And what an ignominious admission that the Aussies do not have the cricketing skills to win the matches without using such base techniques!!

There is another aspect which has not been talked about openly. What sort of effect does sledging have on the umpires, even though sledging does not target them directly? All said and done sledging is bullying and no less. When the Aussie bullies or the South African bullies (just look at Andre Nel) indulge in sledging and their respective cricket bodies or ICC do nothing to control that, the umpires will subconsciously submit to that bullying and rule in their favour rather than be fair to the victims. This is what happened in Sydney when decision after decision went against India.

How can this scourge be eliminated?

Athletics administrators have shown the way already by their strong action against the doping culprits, many of them quite high-profile athletes. The Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, had set a couple of world records in 100 metre sprint in 1986-87. Then he won the 100 m sprint in the 1988 Olympics ahead of Carl Lewis of USA and Linford Christie of UK. However he tested positive to some banned substance. Immediately he was stripped of his title, and Carl Lewis and Linford Christie were awarded the first and second places. Ben Johnson's earlier world records were also removed from the records.

Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France cycling competition. But then his doping test showed positive. He was stripped of his title and was banned for two years.

Justin Gatlin set a world record for 100 m sprint (9.77 sec) in May 2006. He too tested positive subsequently. His world record was annulled and he has been awarded a 4-year ban.

The most high-profile athlete to get caught is Marion Jones of USA who won 5 medals (3 gold and 2 bronze) in the 2000 Olympics. She has recently faced her punishment and had to surrender all her medals and the monies she earned out of that. She is also banned for two years and has to undergo 6-months jail sentence.

That is the way to go to kill the scourge of sledging. Sledging became a high profile technique ever since Steve Waugh, the high priest of sledging, took over as the Aussie captain. So the clean-up also should begin from that time. All the test matches won by Australia, against whatever country, should be reviewed from the point of view of how sledging impacted the result, and wherever a reasonable link is seen, the result of that test match should be annulled. It will be interesting to see how many matches they really won using their skills alone. For a start, the second test at Sydney should be declared a 'No Result'.