Poor cricketing

I

Sir,

The Indian cricket team has once again let down the cricket fans in India. The defeat at Sydney evoked the memories of the world cup finals played at Jahensberg Africa. It is not understood why India cricket team does not learn from the past mistakes.

The cricket fans had forgotten the humiliating defeat at world cup by giving a consolation that atleast India reached upto finals. But this defeat has again pained them. It has hurt us beyond description. The Ganguly's team played as if they were novice to the game. A team having world reputed players like Sachin Tendulkar displayed a pathetic show. In every department of the game, they showed their incompetence. Winning matches against Zimbabwe was no achievement. Barring a single victory against Australians, they lost all the matches. Indeed a pathetic show. The Indian cricket team would now say 'let us forget about the past, and think about future.' This cliche has now lost meaning for us. There is now the coming Indo-Pak cricket series. At this time, stakes are much more. Expectations are great. But going by the present condition of team, one can do nothing but keep fingers crossed.

Yours etc...
Vikas Mahjan
Gandhi Nagar,
Jammu.

II

Sir,

The article by Allan Border published in your esteemed paper dated 10.2.2004 on the performance of India cricket team in Australia is exceptionally good and can put out of gear Indian cricket team back on rails, if its merits, demirts are seriously considered by select panel of BCCI.

A few considerations as below can prove vital tonic for ailing Indian cricket team.

* No player of whatever repute may be allowed to continue as a permanent member of playing squad after poor performance in last series and should be replaced by one out of hundreds of talents in the country of more than 10 billion population.

* Permanent seat of wicket keeper should be suitable filled by one available from the best talent in the country and specialist batsman life Rahul Dravid should be relieved of extra pressure of wicket keeping.

* Bowling quota should be distributed only among the specialist bowlers and part time bowlers should never be made regular features as practised in recent past.

This way the team selected for upcoming Pak tour may regain its past, lost glory by possible beating hosts as this is going to be a tough tour besides emotional, being not less than a full fledged war with arch rivals. Dy. P M Advani has acknowledged the hurting of sentiments of 10 billion Indians by poor performance of Indian cricket team in Australia as having lost 5 out of six games against world champions.

Yours etc...
A K Gandhotra
Upper Shiv Nagar,
Jammu.

Hurriyat's proposal of talks

Sir,

The editorial captioned "Joke on Kashmiri Pandits (DE) dated 5.2.2004 is appreciably apt and realistic as it places the nuances of the Hurriyat's proposal of talks with the KPs, in their proper perspective. At this stage, Kashmiri Pandits are averse to talks with any faction of the Hurriyat Conference, precisely because it was this separatist Conglomerate that was instrumental in uprooting the Pandits, the aborigines of Kashmir from their own soil. Some years back Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, the then chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, said, in an ambivalent attitude, that Kashmiri Pandits were welcome to come back, but hastened to add that they could not live in Kashmir, as their houses had been burnt. Long after this came the statement of the Hizb Chief as also that of Mr. Yasin Malik that KPs could live again in Kashmir on the condition that they would have to participate in the freedom struggle. Such statements clearly betrayed the insincerity of their intentions.

It was only when Mr. L K Advani made it clear to the Hurriyat representative in the first round of talks at Delhi that Kashmiri Pandits were a natural ally to the process of dialogue on Kashmir, that the Hurriyat made a statement casually that it would talk to KPs also.

The year 2004 has ushered in a period of mutual discussion and dialogues. Kashmiri Pandits have a right to enter into a dialogue that concerns their resettlement in the Valley. But they will, to start with, have talks with the central leadership only to put across their geo-political aspirations and conditions for a dignified resettlement in their place of birth.

Yours etc...
Prof. M L Raina
Jammu.