Law  and  Sports in India by Mukul Mudgal and Vidushpat Singhania ; Published by LexisNexis ; Pages  1181 ; Price Rs 1295/-

                                             ***********************************************

Mukul Mudgal was Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and before that Judge of the Delhi High Court. He was Chairman of several Commissions—the Drafting Committee of the Sports Development Bill, the Sporting Fraud Bill, etc. He has been a crusader of the sports movement and athletes’ rights in the country. The co-Author Vidushpat Singania  is the Managing Partner of a firm specializing in sports and gaming laws. He has advised the Government of India on sports laws.

Sports had engendered many problems and controversies with serious legal implications. A book on Sports law is absolutely essential to keep Sports out of being tainted by the gang of persons like Suresh Kalmadi. The book under review fulfills this need to a great extent. It is distinguished by its coherent analysis of a number of legal aspects which have a bearing on the current crisis in the field that affects sports persons such as contracts, sponsorship, doping and other malpractices, broadcasting, betting and settling sports disputes.

In our country, the National Sports Policy was first formulated in 1984 with the objective of raising the standard of Sports. The implementation of the National Sports Policy is required to be  reviewed every five years. The policy was reformulated in 2001. Currently, the National Sports Development Bill 2013 is under consideration. The aim behind the Bill is to ensure good governance practices like transparency, accountability, responsibility and discipline.

The authors provide  a comprehensive analysis of the historical and contemporary issues related to sports and law. They define sports as an activity that  helps man gain mastery over nature and environment which  assisted Man in developing skills that are required for development as a social being. We have an excellent and lucid analysis of the origin and development of sports, covering the history of the Olympic Games. The history of cricket, Hockey, Chess, Tennis, Billiards, Golf, Football are succinctly recounted.

With professionalization and commercialization of sports and the subsequent increase in the financial stakes in sports events , a number of disputes related to sports emerged and this inevitably necessitated evolution of sports laws. Major problems sprang from gender discrimination, sexual exploitation of women athletes and exploitation of players and the predominant gap between players and the governing bodies of various sports. A controversial topic is performance enhancing drugs. Organisations like Indian Premier League, the Indian Super League, Premier  Badminton League, Pro-Kabbadi League Hockey,  India League,etc   have  in some measure contributed to a reduction  in the quality of sports. Broadcasting and publicity rights have become an important domain of controversy. Violence has also become endemic in sports.

The book thoroughly discusses subjects as Gender Discrimination, Doping, Sports Broadcasting, Labour and Contractual issues in Sports, violence and injuries, Tax problems in Sports. Resolution of Sports Disputes. We have a clinical analysis of the legacy of the Commonwealth Games, Delhi 2010, International Cricket Council Governance and the IPL Probe.

The NADA established as an autonomous society is the main presiding agency for initiating proceedings against persons violating the Anti-Doping norms. It acts as an advisory body to the Government on the policy matters relating to anti-doping matters. Over 425 pages are devoted to a summary pf the NADA Panel decisions.

Some grey areas in Sports Rules are highlighted in one chapter. The problems in sports where there are no rules have been made or where rules are difficult to apply have been analysed in depth and the authors examine ways and means of tackling such problems. To give a brief examples—The Switch Hit controversy in Cricket ;  The Art of Flip in and the Penalty Corner Rule in Football ;  The Spy Story involving Ferrier and Melamer in  Formula One racing cars.

Technology has had an impact on Sports and  led to an advancement of sporting equipment and amendment of several rules of the game.

There are eight  Appendices running into 175 pages which furnish a  wealth of information on important subjects like the Draft National Sports Development Bill, 2013, Draft Prevention of Sporting Frauds Bill 2013 and BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Code for participants.

The book offers a glimpse about 26 countries which have either enacted a legislation for Sports or are regulating Sports through Sports laws maintaining a close watch on the Governance of National Olympic Committee and the National Sports Federations.

There is a rich bibliography of books, articles, journals and on-line sources. 

The book is of immense interest to members of the sports fraternity, sports organizations, regulatory agencies and thousands of sports lovers.

P.P.Ramachandran

09 / 10 / 2016