Opinion Officer down

— Yash P. Verma Pune

Old wine,old bottles

* The failure of the election managers of the Congress to chalk out a bold new strategy,rather than trying to exploit vote-bank politics and using the charisma of the Gandhi family,was responsible for its humiliating defeat in the UP elections (‘Get real’,IE,March 8). It’s unfortunate that a party with such a long history had to rely on caste and communal politics for votes instead of developmental strategies. If the UP election results have convincingly established the growing irrelevance of caste and communal equations,it augers well for the country’s body politic.

— V.S. Kaushik Bangalore

Glorious exit

* Rahul Dravid is truly a gentleman cricketer. He has surmised correctly that youngsters should now take over Indian cricket. Dravid’s retirement should be a pointer to other ageing cricketers. It’s better to quit magnanimously and with dignity than wait to be pushed out ignominiously. Many of our present-day cricketers should realise that their attitude is proving harmful for Indian cricket. Dravid had cricket left in him. But he called it quits before it was too late.

— Geraldine H. Mumbai

* Rahul Dravid is an exemplary sportsman with a principled career on and off the field. Dravid lacked the ego to assert himself,but then he cared for India’s fair name and kept quiet. His outstanding,mature and memorable oration before the Australian tour alone places him far above the rest. He will be fondly remembered for having played the game by the rules and not with arrogance.

— C.N.N. Nair Mumbai

Chappellspeak

* Apropos the editorial ‘Greg vs Gods’ (IE,March 9),you are quite right in pointing out that Greg Chappell’s comment that our selectors have been mollycoddling the “gods” at the cost of the team deserves not to be brushed aside as another caustic remark from a cranky former coach.

— V. Subramanyan Dombivli

* Greg Chappell has questioned the mollycoddling of the “greats” in Team India and that’s purely the cricketing aspect of the issue. What’s more relevant is the commercial aspect. Whether individual milestones are more important than the team winning more matches is a legitimate question. But it disregards the commercial consideration of the star value of individual players for the BCCI.

— Kishor Kulkarni Mumbai