The Chambers of Commerce

Everyone has been passing judgment on the Dwain Chambers/Rugby League debate so it is about time I gave it a go. For those of you who haven’t been living the cloistered existence of a monk away from sports news in the past few months, you will know this debate all too well. For everyone else, the 29-year-old is a disgraced-drugs-dupe: a British sprinter who has served a two-year drugs ban, and after finding numerous difficulties to re-establish his athletics career, has now been offered a trial at bottom of the league Rugby League club Castleford.

The whole story is obviously primarily a publicity stunt. Chambers is trying to boost is profile and shift the concentration away from his identity as a rogue runner. With a life-time ban from the Olympics, and a high-scale opposition to his return to sprinting, the man needs to earn a living somehow and hopes to make use of his athletic ability. The man, after all, still owes the athletics authorities £100,000 in prize money which he won when he was taking drugs.

Castleford are in big trouble in the Super League, propping up England’s first division with only 2 points from the first 9 matches. "We must make the most of the opportunities for the attraction of new players," said Castleford Rugby Union coach Chris Willet only a week ago, reflecting the need to improve rugby in the community at large. If they can improve on ticket sales, attract some new blood and generally boost their profile, hopefully their poor start to the season will not lead to choppier waters further up stream.

But there is a rather non-sensical premise behind this switch. In fact, the idea is flawed by the whole idea of thinking that Chambers will be able to play and succeed in Rugby League. He has already had two failed attempts at American Football. Having the ability of a speed-merchant is not enough for an athlete to be able to take up a ball sport, so if the club and Chambers himself believe this time is going to be any different, they are living in cloud cuckoo land. I somehow doubt a crash-course in catching will be enough.

It is far more likely that a professional player in the sports of football or rugby would be able to traverse the switch to sprinting than the other way around. Such players have natural speed which is built upon through physical and nutritional training as being quick is a necessary component of being a successful player. Sprinters, on the other hand, are trained to be fast as the sole purpose of their existence. Running 100 or 200 metres in Chambers’ case, his body will be trained to run to its maximum capacity in the short space of 10 or 20 seconds. No other skills are needed to be a successful sprinter other than the physical training for the short distance running.

Should Castleford be hit by injuries, Chambers could make a shock debut against St Helens on Sunday. Saints, who are the 2007 World Club champions and have won the Challenge Cup two years running, could give the Chambers-Castleford combination the baptism of fire that this country’s media has been waiting for.