COMMENT: Kagiso Rabada's drug-use scandal was a poorly managed affair

Who would have thought an educated athlete such as Kagiso Rabada would be involved in a drug-related issue?

Yes, on the field, the 29-year-old has found himself in hot water that has seen him sit in a six-hour hearing in 2018 for physical contact with Steve Smith and was banned in England a year prior for a rather violent send-off of Ben Stokes.

However, both those cases boiled down to the traditional fast bowler's passion after toiling for hours to get a wicket. On the other hand, the one-month ban for recreational drug use is, however, a different case altogether.

Those who are intricately involved in the sport at the highest level would have heard of the many 'bad boy' stories about the fast bowler. Could this have been one of those instances, except that this one just could not be contained internally?

Nonetheless, the quick served his suspension and did all that was required of him by the South African Institute for Drug Free Sports (SAIDS), and the matter is now considered closed.

The fast bowler is back with his IPL team, the Gujarat Titans, and the reason behind his exclusion from Tuesday's fixture against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium had very little to do with the situation.

"He is back in time, but we thought he might need a couple of more practice sessions to be able to get back in the groove," Shubman Gill, the Titans' captain, said at the toss at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

However, it is still disappointing for a player of the calibre of Rabada to have been found in such a situation. As the 29-year-old stated in his statement on Saturday, the matter will not define him. However, now the cat's out of the bag. The whole country knows that there is a lot that gets hidden from the public.

Who was involved in the decision-making that led to the fast bowler citing personal reasons for his early departure from the Indian Premier League last month? It surely could not have been Rabada's decision alone. It is purely part of the many tactics that are used to shrug matters of national importance under the rug.

With the IPL set to reach its conclusion on May 25, and South Africa set to play a Four-Day fixture against Zimbabwe from the third of June in preparation for the World Test Championship, it is highly unlikely that the country will know in detail what happened.

However, the world is talking, including the former Australian captain Tim Paine, and the pressure is mounting.

“It stinks. I don’t like this use around personal issues, and it is being used to hide stuff that isn’t a personal issue. If you have a professional sportsman who’s tested for recreational drugs during a tournament in which he is playing, that doesn’t fall under personal issues for me. That falls under you having broken your contract. That is not a personal issue, that is something that is happening in your personal life," Paine told SEN Radio.

It is quite clear that the situation was handled poorly, and one would hope that things will change going forward.