Sir, — The Wankhede pitch was way below the standard for a five-day Test.
The practice of preparing pitches to favour the host team's bowlers ins "not cricket".
A couple of years back, New Zealand prepared pitches to favour their seam bowlers and then India was at the receiving end.
It is high time the relevant laws of cricket are amended in order to ensure that the same unethical practice does not recur.
K. M. Chengappa, MysoreA lessonSir, — The fourth Test had been won by India in just a little more than two days.
The loss should teach a lesson or two to the Aussies. With a little more commitment the Aussies could have won, but it was no surprise that they succumbed.
It reminded me of the Aussie tour of England in 1956, when England through Laker, humiliated the Aussies.
Bhagawath Viswanath, BangaloreWrong choiceSir, — While the Australians came fully prepared and deserved their success, the Indian planning for this important series was poor and at times cavalier!
India was unlucky to lose an opportunity to win at Chennai, traditionally one of the two favourite centres in India, the other being Kolkata.
The Indians should not have chosen Nagpur as one of the venues for such a prestigious series. Worse, they provided the Australians with one of their own `home' pitches at Nagpur!
One could see the Australians chuckling at the sight of the grassy pitch, which did not provide any help to Kumble and company but generally aided the faster bowlers and India went into this match with just two pace bowlers!
K. A. S. Namboodiripad, ThrissurInterestingSir, — The Sportstar is the No. 1 sports magazine in India.
The coverage of major sports is excellent. I am a cricket fan and have a special liking for your cricket coverage.
The features of Peter Roebuck, Ted Corbett, Sunil Gavaskar and Bob Simpson are very interesting to read. The photos are catchy, too.
S. Kishore, BangaloreSelectors to blameSir, — India lost a Test series at home to Australai for the first time since 1969.
The entire selection panel should be blame for the loss. Gautam Gambhir and Vinayak Mane have been opening together since their school days (Dheeraj Jadhav could have been in the reserve) but the selectors ignored them.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly and the selectors persisted with Parthiv Patel who was very ordinary behind the stumps and dropped many easy chances.
Moreover Ganguly seemed to suggest that even the Australians dropped catches but can that be taken as an excuse?
We handed over the series on a platter to the Aussies.
A. G. Kanetkar, MumbaiExcellent coverageSir, — We are regular readers of The Sportstar from 1988. The issue dated October 30 was an excellent one. The review, photographs and the Photo Feature of the Chennai Test were very good. We expect the same type of coverage in the forthcoming series, too. Wishing you all the best for the future.
Nikhitha, Anoop & Anu, BangaloreKudos to KeralaSir, — Congratulations to Kerala on winning the Santosh Trophy. And hats off to Punjab for providing 120 minutes of exhilarating football in front of a full house at the Ambedkar Stadium.
The final proved that the world's most popular game is alive and kicking in India, too. You cannot expect such a crowd for a Ranji Trophy final!
Doordarshan again played spoilsport by not telecasting the match live on the National channel.
Even the semi-finals were not shown as DD was telecasting the Australians thrashing Dravid and company at Nagpur! And we talk about promoting Olympic sports!
Col. M. N. S. Thampi (retd)., Thiruvananthapuram
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