Olympic medal winner and a national celebrity, Sushil Kumar has been in the news for the past one month purely due to wrong reasons. The famous wrestler is now facing murder charges for allegedly participating in the killing of a junior sports colleague, who chose to defy him by not agreeing to vacate premises allotted to him by the Olympian. Sushil Kumar was on the run for nearly three weeks before he was apprehended while attempting to collect money from an associate in the capital. His flight took him into five states and in order to elude the police, he used multiple SIM cards but finally the long arms of law nabbed him.
It is not for the first time that Sushil has run into trouble; a few years ago, he had been accused by another wrestler, younger to him, of how he had been framed in a false case, so he could not compete for an Olympic berth. Rivalry in the sports arena is as old as rivalry in any other sphere. However, it is expected of all sportspersons that they should never allow the overall sportsman spirit to be compromised. There is a story of how a Kenyan athlete who had led all the way in a marathon, got confused by the signages he could not read and stopped in his tracks, barely a few metres from the finish line. The Spanish runner way behind him caught up and clearly understood what the problem was. When his pleas to the Kenyan to continue running fell on deaf years—the Kenyan did not understand Spanish—the Spaniard athlete literally pushed the Kenyan beyond the finish line to make him the deserving winner. When asked by journalists why he had done it since he would have easily won the race, the Spaniard in the highest traditions associated with sports said that he would have been fooling himself had he done so. The Kenyan had already won and he would not have been able to live with the thought of winning by deceit. This is what sportsman spirit is all about. There are several examples in the cricket world where even after a player was declared out by the umpire, the opposing team members recalled him thereby withdrawing their appeal that had given him out unfairly.
Sushil Kumar is not the only case, where fame has made a sportsman infringe the law. Another Olympian had a few years ago ferried drugs and narcotics in his car and was caught red handed by the police. However, keeping in view his achievements, top functionaries of the government decided to look the other way and ordered his release. This Olympian later went on to excel further in his sport. Sushil Kumar’s crime, if it is proven in a court of law, can end his career, sully his reputation forever, and put a question mark on his character.
There are numerous examples of sports celebrities gaining notoriety by infringing the law. In the United States, the most conspicuous examples are of O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods. In South Africa, Oscar Pistorius was held after killing his girlfriend, and Hansie Cronje fell from grace for his alleged involvement in the betting scandal. In India, several cricketers such as Mohammad Azharuddin and S. Sreesanth had to sit out for allegedly breaking the code of conduct. Sushil Kumar should get a fair trial and if he is found guilty, he should face the consequences of his actions. However, if he is innocent, he should be set free.