Letters

`Last link to special past'

The Cover Story on Brian Lara (`Rising like a Phoenix', issue dated May 13) was really good. Though Lara's record as captain is very ordinary, one must not forget that some very special moments have come under his captaincy. Whether it was the famous Test match against Australia in 1999 in which Lara scored 153, the biggest run chase in Test history three years ago, or the ICC Champions Trophy victory, Brian Lara is indeed "the last link to a special past" who manages to bring back smiles on the faces of the West Indians.

M. Yusuf Ansari, AligarhLehmann to blame

What a wonderful Champions League Final it was! First Arsenal with just 10 men scoring a goal and Barcelona bouncing back! It was touching to see Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho shaking hands when one of them was down on the ground! A la Brett Lee and Andrew Flintoff at Edgbaston!

Arsenal lost clearly because of the stupidity of their goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann, who was sent off. Because of him Pires too had to go off the field, and Arsenal were down to 10 men.

I hope Germany's coach for the World Cup realises the undependability of Lehmann and takes Oliver Kahn as his first choice goalkeeper.

The match was spoilt for Indian viewers by the Hindi commentator butting in with his two-piece comments, drowning the far more experienced English commentators.

K. Rajaram, PuneAn error

I am a regular reader of Sportstar and there is an error in the May 13 issue. In the last paragraph of the `Dawn of the Pele Era' on Page 28, by S. R. Suryanarayan, it is incorrectly written — "Breitner converting a penalty after he was tripped." This is incorrect. The German player who was tripped was Bernd H�lzenbein. The penalty was, of course, taken by Paul Breitner.

Anand Sharma, Jaipur