THE Tejbir Singh doping scandal has entered a sphere of unwanted ambiguity with the two top bodies responsible for running hockey in the country _ the Indian Hockey Federation and Sports Authority of India _ sticking to their guns about the veracity of the incident. The Indian Hockey Federation denied the very happening of the positive test, blaming the media for reporting a “non-existent” story, but top SAI officials, who had notified the IHF of the positive test before Indian team’s departure to Madrid for the Olympic qualifiers, succinctly stated: “No smoke without fire.”

IHF Secretary General K Jothikumaran told this correspondent that there was no truth in the agency report on Thursday, almost echoing his president KPS Gill’s feigned ignorance of the incident on Thursday.
“When I spoke to Tejbir (who was otherwise unreachable) he denied having spoken to the agency,” Jothikumaran said. Subsequently the IHF is reported to have issued a diktat to the Punjab Police player to announce his denial of the “confession.”

“Hockey players needn’t take drugs to enhance their performance. I’m quite surprised at this report. This has come out of the blue. We asked Tejbir to return from Madrid because of a muscle pull he suffered during practice, days before the tournament. And that’s the truth,” Jothikumaran claimed.

SAI officials meanwhile termed the IHF reaction as “cat closing its eye while drinking milk” and said “our files can’t lie.”

“Why will we pointedly name Tejbir and send a letter to the IHF, if there’s no truth,” asked the SAI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “As to whether hockey players indulge in doping or not. Or whether their performance can be enhanced by drugs is out of our jurisdiction,” he said.

Tejbir Singh, according to SAI, had tested positive for nandrolone (See box for details on the drug) during the ‘pre-departure’ test. The test was done on three more players _ Arjun Halappa, Ignace Tirkey and Bimal Lakra.
The routine procedure for the dope testing that the testing laboratory to inform the Executive Director (Teams) of SAI _ in this case former India captain and coach MP Ganesh _ about the sample that has tested positive (The laboratory only gets a number as the identification and not the name of the player). The ED will in turn check on the correponding name of the player and inform the federation about the test. The ball then is exclusively in the respective federation’s court. Action or punishment that needs to be enforced on the ‘erring’ player, would thus be left to the federation concerned.

What, in this context, gives the IHF the upper hand is the fact that the laboratory which tested the samples is not accredited by the International Olympic Committee and therefore the test is not officially authentic. Therefore it is not binding on the IHF to punish the player who tests positive. But imagine if a player goes through to play at the Olympics, despite having tested positive: According to the International Hockey Federation stipulations, any player testing positive is liable to be banned for two years.

Therefore, it is for the IHF to call the spade by its name, and probe into how the positive test happened, instead of trying to hush things up.

Doping, tests as well as remedial action taken, in India is an area filled with ‘political correctness’ attitude. Most of the time athletes testing positive in “Indian laboratories” are allowed to participate for want of an “authorised laboratory”. And therefore either get caught on the international stage, causing a major embarrassment for the entire sporting fraternity of the country or perform below par in order to escape the random testing at major international events.
But for Indian Hockey Federation to take the matter lightly, especially in the year of the Olympics, leaves the discerning shuddering with the thought of a probable Indian medal being scrapped.

It’s a different matter altogether if the IHF doesn’t want to come out in the open and announce the postive tests. It’s an in-house matter after all. But once a player tests positive at the Olympics, it becomes the raging topic to the entire sporting world. Better to cleanse dirty linen in house.

Courtesy Vijay Times, Bangalore