Actor Suniel Shetty made anti-doping brand ambassador

Actor Suniel Shetty has been named as the brand ambassador of the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), and will be officially unveiled at a ceremony in New Delhi on Tuesday. After more than 150 athletes failed various dope tests this year, including NBA star Satnam Singh, the country's anti-doping federation is hopeful that the presence of a celebrity will help keep sports clean and deter the players from the menace.

Earlier this year, the World Anti Doping Agency had suspended India's National Anti Doping Lab due to non-conformities with the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL). As a result, the dope samples now collected by the NADA from the sports stars will have to be tested outside India. This has given rise to the fear that not enough athletes will be able to be tested ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The director of NADA Navin Agarwal stated that the presence of Shetty will give him more "reach" and he can send out the message of shunning doping to a larger audience. “We thought that an actor of the status of Suniel Shetty will be able to send out message to shun doping, that doping is not good for themselves and for the country. We felt that celebrities will have more outreach to the masses of the country as they have a lot of following,” Agarwal said.

He further stated that having a current or a former athlete in Shetty's place might not have been the best move as they would not have been able to spread the messaging as easily.

“A former athlete would have lacked clout (as compared to a film star) and may not be able to spread the message (to shun doping) to the masses.

“As far as current athletes are concerned, they are busy playing their respective tournaments and training, so we have not thought about them for this.”

In the recent list that had been released by the NADA last week, around 34 bodybuilders had been tested positive in the dope tests that had been carried out in April this year. Along with Satnam Singh, who has been suspended for four years, boxer Neeraj Phogat too was tested positive, following which she was dropped from the Sports Ministry's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).