End of the umpire

Apropos Shekhar Gupta’s timely and lively write-up ‘Kapil’s shin, Bhajji’s clout’, I am sure every cricket lover in the country endorses his views.

• Apropos Shekhar Gupta’s timely and lively write-up ‘Kapil’s shin, Bhajji’s clout’, I am sure every cricket lover in the country endorses his views. He has brilliantly highlighted the sins of the cricket legends of the past.

He also took us down memory lane, with the 1992-93 Friendship Series between India and South Africa marking the re-entry of South Africa (till then facing an international anti-apartheid boycott), which was also marred by Steve Bucknor’s dubious decisions. However, the then Indian captain, Kapil Dev, didn’t retaliate, either to this or to the hitting action of Wessels, for obvious reasons.

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But today, the Indian subcontinent is in a commanding position, which perhaps makes the teams of erstwhile dominating nations like Australia, England and South Africa a tad jittery. The British media’s reaction to Steve Bucknor’s removal from the third Test match at Perth in the ongoing Indo-Aussies series, on the BCCI’s demand, speaks volumes about their apprehensions of this new global order. In any case, it is time to call the bluff of the ‘erring’ match umpires whose wrong actions changed the fate of the match at crucial junctures. In fact, umpires on the field ought to make the maximum use of electronic gadgets available to them to bring transparency and minimise heartburn between the rival teams.

— S.K. Gupta

Delhi

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• It naturally follows from Shekhar Gupta’s column that BCCI President Sharad Pawar should call off the tour, if the ICC remains stubborn about Mike Procter’s decision against Bhajji. Shekhar’s account of the ‘Friendship Series, 1992-93’ and Steve Bucknor’s umpiring is reason enough to resist the dadagiri of the ICC. This tainted Australian tour should be called off before the first ball at the Adelaide Test is bowled, if the ban against Bhajji continues. The subcontinent now has the muscle, and it should be flexed. And as commentators have demanded, the BCCI should call for the Sydney result to be struck off the record.

— Kedarnath R. Aiyar

Mumbai

A hero’s height

• with the death of Sir Edmund Percival Hillary at the age of 88, in Auckland, India lost a true and beloved friend. The shy but plain-speaking Hillary, along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first to scale the Everest, a heroic exploit that ranks with the first trek to the South Pole and Lindbergh’s non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

What remains a mystery is — who had reached the peak first, Tenzing or Hillary? Even when the king of Nepal announced that Tenzing had been the first, Hillary refused to comment.

Finally Tenzing himself revealed that Hillary had reached the summit first. It was only after Tenzing’s death in 1986 that Hillary broke his silence, confirming that he had been about 10 feet ahead. Such is the character of this great man who was a beekeeper by profession, and also the high commissioner to India. Hillary enjoyed enormous goodwill not only in Darjeeling but also in Nepal, where he devoted his life to helping the Sherpas.

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The world is poorer for the loss of such a great man, and we salute him.

— Bidyut K. Chatterjee

Faridabad

SPG envy

• Former prime ministers, incumbent prime ministers and their families enjoy the privilege of having the country’s most elite SPG security cover. So then maybe it is fitting that an aspiring prime minister or a prime minister-in-waiting (leader of the opposition) also get the same privileges? Even though these protective covers cut off the dignitary from his or her roots, their ambitions find fulfilment.

— Shariq Alavi

Lucknow