Cricket scene

Sir, - I have watched the recent happenings on the Indian cricket scene with a mixture of sadness and amusement. The former, because the game and its spirit have been upstaged by rampant commercialism and individuals who symbolised the stuff that heroic lore is made of are hard to be accepted as untainted. In that sense, their fall is symbolic of the depths to which the game has been allowed to sink by the BCCI.

I feel amused when I watch statements emanating from the BCCI... full of self-contradiction, lacking in conviction and most of all, lacking in an application of mind. Bereft of focus and clarity of thought, the BCCI today is no better than a many- mouthed bumbling monolith whose hands are surely stretched to wring out every aluminium paisa it can from the game but whose feet are deeply anchored in the muck of medieval politics and elephantine egos.

On the other hand, Kapil's call for professionalism, while decidedly full of merit, is highly questionable in intent. Strange that he is recognising that deficit now and calling for change (when faced with the heat of investigation) when all along he has been happy to receive his awards and encomiums from the very board he now disapproves of.

The India coach should remember that he could have spoken his mind immediately after he retired from the game and campaigned for a change which would have raised his stature head and shoulders above the rest of the incompetency, since he now seems to be acutely aware that at least once upon a time, he was a hero in the eyes of an entire generation of Indians like me who were growing up watching his inspirational acts on the field. Sorry Mr. Dev, all your innocent protestations, even if you are proved innocent, are missing their mark by their sheer timing. Ironical for a man who came to define what timing on the field was all about.

Abhijit Afzalpurkar,

Georgia (U.S.)

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