British media,former players hail generous Dhoni

The Indian captain was hailed for upholding the spirit of the game by many but there were others who felt Bell should have paid for his carelessness and that included legendary English all-rounder Ian Botham.

It was the right decision by the umpires,they did everything spot-on. Bell had wandered off. He was out and he should have stayed out,in my opinion,8221; Botham wrote in 8216;Daily Mirror8217;.

I can understand why MS Dhoni withdrew his appeal and decided to go along with the spirit of the game,but I would have had no problem if he had upheld it and sent a message about dopey cricket.

If it was me I8217;d have run him out and let him think long and hard about remaining in his crease until the ball is dead while sitting on the balcony watching others score the runs he should have, he said.

Even former Australian spinner Shane Warne agreed that Bell was at fault in the episode.

What a last delivery before tea huge controversy. Much as we don8217;t like to see dismissals like that,Bell made a careless mistake, he said.

On the other hand,England spinner Graeme Swann could not understand what the fuss was all about.

The big issue about the run out that wasn8217;t hasn8217;t been mentioned yet. I had already started a cheese sandwich,so it was definitely tea, he joked.

The 8216;Daily Mail8217; said India should not have bothered about the boos at Trent Bridge as they had not done any wrong by dismissing a careless player.

We almost had an international incident on our hands when Ian Bell was dismissed as he prematurely walked off for tea at Trent Bridge believing that Eoin Morgan had flicked the last ball before the interval for four.

That we did not was due to an extraordinary piece of sportsmanship from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher that is being hailed as a victory for the spirit of cricket.

But,frankly,it was one that they did not have any need to make. India had done nothing wrong, the newspaper said.

England might have been furious and the majority of the 17,500 crowd indignant when Abhinav Mukund casually removed the bails as Bell headed towards the pavilion with 137 of the most elegant,exquisite runs that you will ever see to his name. But England really had no cause for complaint.

Bell was inexplicably dozy not to check that the ball had reached the boundary before he left his ground after Praveen Kumar had made a pretty hapless attempt at stopping it reaching the red marker.

The newspaper said Dhoni should not have accepted England8217;s request.

Bell was out of his ground,no sharp practice had taken place and India had nothing to feel guilty about. Eoin Morgan had even gestured to Bell to return to his ground before realising that he was too late and decided instead that he had better walk off nonchalantly too.

Dhoni and coach Fletcher would have had every right to show Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower the door when they asked at tea for India to withdraw their appeal.

The 8216;Daily Mirror8217; stated rather matter of factly,India took the moral high ground,but were brought back to earth on another day of English dominance.

But 8216;The Guardian8217; and 8216;The Independent8217; were effusive in their praise of Dhoni8217;s gesture.

In a game that has at times become increasingly dishonourable it required an honourable act by India8217;s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team to enable Bell to complete an innings that appeared to have been curtailed by his own doziness.

Bell will have learned that in cricket,as in other sports,you play to the metaphorical whistle. He will not always get favours like this. There was some judicial balance in the fact that he capitalised only to the tune of 22 more runs before edging to slip, said 8216;The Guardian8217;.

Dhoni and his team had been booed off the field but with one act of good sportsmanship he won over a capacity crowd of 17,000 and also ensured there would be no lingering bitterness, added 8216;The Independent8217;.