In Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix at the Olympic Games, the puny Gaulish warrior won the golden palm by supplying his competitors with druid Getafix’s magic potion, and then having them disqualified for using a performance-enhancing substance. Since the year was 50 B.C., it was perhaps the first instance of a doping offence in world sport.

Little did the ancient Gauls know that drugs in sports would become an international menace in the centuries to follow, reaching a point where it would have to be monitored on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis by the time 2009 A.D. came along.

For followers of cricket news, the past week has thrown up a sudden barrage of new terms — WADA, whereabouts clause, testing slot. And Team India, who have been mulling over these phrases since the New Zealand series in March, have countered them with some preferred keywords of their own — privacy, security, impracticality.

The new stipulation requires Indian cricketers, like most other sportsmen in the world, to tell the World Anti-Doping Agency their schedule and location on an almost real-time basis, and to be available for a random, surprise test for an hour each day, 365 days a year. Should a player be unavailable three times in an 18-month period, he could be considered a dope offender.

The Indian cricketers and board have refused to adhere to the guideline, saying it is an invasion of privacy and a threat to security, sparking a row in which the public opinion against their stand is growing exponentially with each passing day.

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