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Are we being taken for a ride by 'our heroes' and the ICC?

Dear Mr Dalmiya,

The day I came to know that a fellow Indian was to head the ICC my heart was filled with real pride and anticipation. Pride because a fellow Indian was heading world cricket which had previously been dominated by people from outside the subcontinent. And anticipation because I expected a lot of positives from your appointment. And I must say that the ICC has taken a number of positive steps since then, particularly in the globalisation of the game. For this, you personally and the ICC should be given the credit that is due.

However, cricket followers and fans like me the world over have been hugely disappointed (that is putting it mildly!) by the ICC's handling of two issues, the chucking controversy and the betting and bribery scandals.

Granted that both are particularly difficult issues, but they could have certainly been handled better. While chucking is a technical issue and there are bound to be disagreements over the fairness or otherwise of a particular bowler's action what stumps followers like me is why has the power been taken from umpires to call a bowler for chucking? What you have done by taking away the power from the umpires is belittle their contribution and undermine their confidence. The rules are simple enough as they are. If as an umpire I feel bowler X is chucking the ball I should be given the power to call him. There is no point in getting opinions from so-called specialists such as bio-mechanical experts and complicating things. Umpires should be allowed to make the call, full stop.

Umpires call wides, no-balls, so why change it for chucking. As a paying specatator it is unfair to me if I know that bowler X is chucking the ball but is still not being called by the umpire but just being reported for further action. What about the wickets he takes with illegal deliveries?

As a cricket fan it is my humble plea that umpires be given back the power to call bowlers who in their opinion are chucking the ball. I also hope that you give your full support to umpires who have the courage to do so.

Coming to the second issue of betting in cricket, here is an interesting incident. I was watching the CricketNext.com Cup between Asia and the Rest of the World. Before the game even started I told my cousins that both teams would score over 300 and Asia would win the game by one run!! My reasoning was that the game was being played in Asia and the match would be "fixed" to suit the occasion! Now that result could have been pure coincidence or a "fixed" game, I am not sure.

What this illustrates is the state of mind of the average cricket follower.

We just don't know for sure whether Azhar, Sachin, Dravid are our real heroes or pawns dancing to the tune of the dollar music. We hope and pray that it is not the latter.

Who is responsible for this state of mind of the average fan? Please forgive me when I say the answer to this question is ICC. But as a world governing body of this wonderful game of cricket the buck stops with ICC.

Technology has given us this wonderful tool to communicate with each other across the seas. With this technology at hand you have the power to listen to the average cricket fan like me. But do you want to listen? Do you really care as much as we do? Are we being taken for a ride by "our heroes" and the ICC? And above all is it fair to us, the paying public?

We deserve to know the answers and we hope you are listening, if not, there is the very real possibility of us turning away from the stadiums.

Your's in cricket (can we still call it a gentleman's game?).

Zak Parkar
Perth, Western Australia