The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), John Fahey, has expressed concern over the slow pace of creation of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in India. “India is crucial in the scheme of things of WADA, but the pace at which the country is working towards creation of its NADA is not really encouraging. I am worried about it,” Fahey said during a media symposium at the Olympic museum in Lausanne here recently.

Fahey, a former Australian finance minister, took charge of WADA in January following the retirement of former president Dick Pound after six year’s in office. “There has been very little communication from India, much below our expectation,” said David Howman, the director general of WADA, who had led a three-member delegation to New Delhi in October last year. “We want NADA to be operational soon. It’s not enough that you have a structure in place; it has to be backed by an operational programme. All that is required is strong co-ordination between stakeholders and we hope it works out sooner than later,” added Howman.

The WADA director general will visit India again to assess the progress during the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune later this year.

“India has to take the initiative. We are just a supporting agency. It is not a criticism, it’s just the truth,” he said. “We have made our expectations very clear to them, and the Youth Games is the big opportunity for India. We hope we would not be disappointed,” he added.

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