"Indians are furious and it is not about the ICC's ball tampering accusations; what is unacceptable is the tampering with the reputation of India's cricketing icon."

Dr Umesh Mehta, on e-mail

Coloured Cricket

The defeat of the Taliban is not necessarily a victory for the people of Afghanistan ("Freedom", November 26). It is ironic that the fate of millions of Afghan citizens is being decided by foreigners. It is time the leaders of different factions in Afghanistan realised that without following the principles of democracy and human rights, they will be left without any followers and that those who breed fundamentalism to remain in power weaken the roots of their country.

Suja Nambiar, on e-mail

If passionate Indians get their facts right, realisation will soon dawn that the current controversy can only hinge on the severity of the punishment ("Picking on India", December 3). Since there is no provision for appeal against a referee's decision, India should have wisely registered a protest and got on with the game. By giving the incident a racial twist, we are showing typical Indian petulance. When caught in the act of wrongdoing, we start hollering like a spoil brat. Dismissing Mike Denness does nothing to improve our dismal batting, ineffective bowling, shoddy fielding and, above all, clueless captaincy. Let us concentrate on improving the standard of cricket instead.

I.J.S. Bassi, Delhi

Before siding with either party involved in the present imbroglio, we must accept a couple of things: that Sachin Tendulkar was guilty according to the law, however harmless his intention might have been. Thus the country's anger is a misplaced appeal for justice. Second, that the Indian board has dealt with the situation in a shoddy manner, resulting in anarchy, the loss of a Test match and injustice to Virender Sehwag. The point to moot was the validity of the punishments with respect to fairness towards the game and its players, and not the umpire's colour or nationality. Targeting a person is hardly the solution; it only compounds the problem.

Kaushik Das, Bangalore

We seem to have helped the ICC undermine our own case. We were almost solely concentrating on the unfairness of the punishment imposed on Tendulkar, whereas it was the ICC's double standards and self-righteous hypocrisy that should have been the prime targets.

Shyam Shivkumar, Mumbai

The controversy generated by Mike Denness' decision reaffirmed my belief that our country is united only in times of crises and cricket. Despite our passion for cricket, nothing matters more than national pride. We have been discriminated against for far too long and British nepotism, reeking of bias and racial prejudice, is not acceptable to any self-respecting Indian. We don't want a united cricket world at the cost of our national pride and if in the process the game of cricket is a loser, so be it.

Goutom Chatterji, on e-mail

Forget its capability to handle cricketing disputes, the ICC seems adept only in software engineering: the Pareto Principle says that 80 per cent of the software projects are affected by 20 per cent of the defects. Analogous to that is 25 per cent of the cricket-playing fraternity receiving 75 per cent of the punishments.

Abir Kumar Das, on e-mail

The paranoia of failure continues to haunt white cricket-playing countries. When the West Indies came up with some fearful fast bowlers, Australia and England went knocking on the doors of the ICC seeking to change its rules from limitless number of bouncers to two an over. Even the current controversy seems buoyed by the threat of India defeating England with the help of Tendulkar.

Asim Kamal, Lucknow

By overreacting, we are putting the game of cricket in jeopardy. We are a member of the ICC and have to abide by the rulebook, however biased and one-sided the rules may be. The present hawkish stand of the BCCI is endangering the game of cricket.

D.B.N. Murthy, Bangalore

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