Mr Dalmiya, your platform is Lord’s, not the Vatican

Please allow me to add that the Australians have always been a hard team to beat in their own backyard. Their fiercely loyal national pride to any sporting cause in which Aussie stakes are measured in terms of merit, is based on a simple winning formula “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

The Aussie greats have much to offer to their young representatives to remain on their toes. Ian Chappell was a biting critic of Mark Taylor’s batting ability, which only helped the latter be more resolute in his character. And now, if Chappell says Australian domination is “not good for cricket,” I suspect he doesn’t wish Waugh’s warriors to be complacent.

That is how champions emerge, if only to prove their critics wrong. Coach Buchanan has already sounded, “records will not distract us.” Kiwis beware!Dennis Lillee’s pearls of wisdom had a crack at the toothless International Cricket Council (ICC). As if the Shoaib Akhtar fiasco was not enough, the latest from the ICC deliberations in Singapore has further diluted the cricket committee. The job of the ICC is to ensure that the game is run according to rules and not reforms.

In an international competition there is little room for sentiment. It’s not a question of hating the sin and not the sinner. It is a hard game played with a hard ball, which demands equally hard introspection. I sincerely hope Mr Dalmiya is aware that his platform is Lord’s and not the Vatican.

Chubby Allen, a thoroughbred snob, once analysed a `chucker’ from Australia from morning to late afternoon for when the thrower was fresh, he was more fair and less unfair. And as fatigue set in, `chucking’ became more consistent.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to observe Shoaib Akhtar after 30 odd overs, instead of a mere nine or ten. Again, to suggest that a bouncer is a `no ball’ in one day cricket, is a clear deviation from the basic problem. Akhtar either chucks or he doesn’t. If he is fit and fair for one-dayers, then let him go full steam in Tests also.

But, for goodness sake, let the umpires decide on the spur of the moment about fair and unfair deliveries. Now that the ICC has a panel of qualified, neutral umpires, I see no reason why they should not be vested with total authority to prove themselves worthy of the job.