Few in Canada have even heard of the ancient Indian sport of kabaddi, a game of power and speed that blends elements of tag, wrestling and rugby. And even fewer would assume such a niche sport could be rife with performance-enhancing drugs.
But the Canadian national squad is one of many teams caught in a drug scandal that has engulfed the World Cup taking place in India.
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Six members of Canada’s team have tested positive for banned substances, part of an astounding haul of 37 athletes nabbed for using performance-enhancing drugs. Four Canadians have been suspended and will miss Canada’s biggest match of the tournament, Friday’s semi-final against Pakistan. Two other Canadian players tested positive but have been permitted to play because their transgressions were minor, according to a team official.
In recent years, kabaddi has been transformed from a rural, Indian children’s game to a sport played for large cash prizes in the countries of the South Asian diaspora. The World Cup, a 14-team tournament sponsored by the government of Punjab, promises nearly $500,000 to the winning side. Yet organizers’ efforts to promote kabaddi as a potential Olympic sport have been overshadowed by drugs.
The Australian national team was disqualified after five players tested positive and at least two refused to be tested. The U.S. team is also out of the competition after five players tested positive and others refused to give a urine sample. One player whose nationality was not made public was caught swapping his urine for water. At the Indian team’s selection trials, 21 of 51 participants flunked a drug test. India’s National Anti-Doping Agency complained to police that athletes have threatened its staff for trying to carry out the mandated testing.
V. Jayaraman, a senior official with the Indian National Anti-Doping Agency, said there have been 37 positive tests so far during the competition, which is a rate of nearly one in five athletes (by comparison, 30 athletes tested positive in the run-up to the much larger Vancouver 2010 Olympics). Although he couldn’t say specifically what the Canadian players were using, he said approximately 90 per cent of the positive tests have been for steroids. Jas Sohal, an official travelling with the Canadian team, acknowledged the positive tests but said the Canadian athletes tested positive for substances other than steroids.
“These players were not aware of the substances they couldn’t take,” Mr. Sohal said.
The 14 members of the Canadian team are from British Columbia and Ontario, where the country’s four kabaddi federations are located. Summer tournaments regularly attract thousands of spectators in communities such as Brampton, Ont., and many of the top players in the world, often from India, spend their summers playing for fees of $20,000 or more on Canadian club teams.
Mr. Jayaraman attributed the sudden rise in positive tests to a rigorous screening regime spurred on by what he called “a major scandal” over performance-enhancing drugs in India last year. The World Cup is sponsored by the government of Punjab, which is trying to clean up the sport.
“In kabaddi, I’m told [steroid use] is problematic because the game is being spoiled by big money,” Mr. Jayaraman said.
Rosemary Pitfield, public affairs director at the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, said kabaddi does not fall under the Sport Canada governance rules, nor has it signed on to the Canadian anti-doping program.
“It is a large number [of positive tests] and it’s always unfortunate when you see numbers of that size, but we would need more information,” Ms. Pitfield said.
Jett Basi, a journalist who has spent five years covering kabaddi in Canada, said he’s not surprised by the number of positive tests, because “doping is pretty rampant in the kabaddi world.”
The names of those who failed the drug tests have not been released.
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What is kabaddi?
Kabaddi is an ancient sport played primarily in South Asia that involves speed, power and cunning. In the Punjabi variant of the game, a team scores a point when a lone “raider” is able to touch one of four opposing players, known as “stoppers,” and return to his side of the playing field in less than 30 seconds. His opponents try to evade his touch or physically prevent him from crossing the halfway line by tackling, holding or wrestling him to the ground.
Canada finished second in the group stage behind India, the tournament favourites, to qualify for the semifinals, where it faces a highly regarded Pakistani team.
Joe Friesen
Categories: India