Pitfalls of performance-enhancing drugs

Many people will not remember Seif Chale in Kenyan football.

He played in the nether leagues in Mombasa appearing for teams that no longer exist today.

He was a very good player and all called him ‘Captain’ even when he was not the captain of the team. He also dabbled in coaching since the teams he played for never had the luxury of a coach.

Captain was therefore a player coach with lots of passion and he would field the players under some mango tree near the field before the match began.

He had the peculiarity of masturbating just before any match. He believed that act made him lighter and faster during the match.

It was an embarrassing act that Captain stuck to like a religion. Picture the man huddled under a tree and in full glare of his teammates and opponents go into spasms with a contorted face as if in pain while shooting his seed in the public place!

UNDERHANDED TACTICS

When he never got a chance to perform this disgusting rite, he became a very useless player; disorganised; disoriented and generally lacklustre! Captain never took drugs at all. Most of the players depended on bhang power but Captain remained ‘clean’ and only stuck to his ‘dirty’ but harmless custom.

In the tough world of sports competition, the urge to win has been just as old as mankind. Even during the ancient Greek Olympics, there were athletes who cheated their way to victory by employing underhand means to get an edge on their opponents.

There is no sport in this world where someone has never tried to cheat and even performance enhancing drugs have been consumed by competitors in the quest to win.

Today sports has become a multi billion industry and winning brings with it hefty earnings and respect.

It therefore goes without saying that the pressure to outwit your competitors is almost a mental disease. Some years ago, a Kenyan boxer was chucked out of the Olympics when he was allegedly tested and found to have used banned substances.

Back home, many assumed he must have chewed miraa but the fellow came back and denied ever indulging in that habit. Of late, Kenyan athletes have been suspected to take drugs but it is yet to be proven true and thus we still remain with our pride intact.

What bothers me is the fact that our footballers are never screened for substance abuse. It is a fact we ignore but the bhang smoked by our players before and after matches is phenomenal!

Perhaps they do not know the implication of Bangi as a banned substance in sports. Bangi is seen as harmless by many of our players and it is even chic to smoke it.

This lack of screening for banned substances has given many a player some muscle abilities that they may have lacked and just like our disgusting Captain Chale, they lose all focus and ability to play if they do not get their fix of marijuana.

NIP IN THE BUD

In 2006, the Kenyan player Philip Opiyo was banned by FIFA for having puffed on bhang!

Philip was then playing in South Africa where they routinely screen players for banned substances. Apparently, Opiyo had nurtured that habit in Kenya where he appeared for Bandari football club. The habit had gone unnoticed for long till our young talent had taken it as a natural thing.

How many of our players have failed in trials abroad just by the fact that they lacked their fix? What damage has it done to our football?

These are questions we cannot answer with precision. We do not have data nor have we any records that can inform us but we do know that this strange habit must be nipped in the bud.

The only way to this is to set up a testing policy that will randomly sample players and inform them of the dire consequences of using performance enhancing drugs. The whole world is going to Brazil and as such, this column must also take a break until July 21. Let’s meet in Rio de Janeiro good people.