Sir,

I am writing this letter with a heavy heart as I hold you in high esteem. However, the current situation vis-a-vis my position as the Chairman of selection committee has compelled me to write this letter to you.

I am really appalled at the way the BCCI has treated its selectors of late. The recent gag order issued by the BCCI wherein a lot of restrictions on freedom of speech or even movement have been imposed on the selectors, which I feel is rather unfortunate. It has not only humiliated us for doing selfless service to Indian cricket but also shown us in a very poor light.
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When I was younger, my friends and I were asked to find jelly beans in an open field and as kids, we loved it. Times have changed, we are all older and we don’t crave jelly beans anymore. In other words, we have become mature. But, the English don’t seem to be mature enough and still act like infants.

It was appalling to see professional cricketers act like kids by strewing jelly beans around the playing area. It may have been an act of desperation but professional means “you hide it all”. The Brits might have had a chuckle when the innocent looking Zaheer walked towards the slip region like a child complaining, but on the world scene, it’s a shameful act of cowardice.

Maybe the England team has resorted to illegal ways of swinging the cricket ball by smearing the stickiness from jelly bean onto the ball. Cricket administrators have never doubted the integrity of the white teams in International cricket and I doubt they would it this time round.

Keeping the jelly bean episode aside, the victory at Trent Bridge although expected is sweet especially when you almost lost the first one. Indian players deserve this victory just for sheer team work. They gelled as a team during the entire test, fought as a single unit which brought about the ever-sweet victory.

India should go with the same intensity in the final test at the Oval. A series win is something India has been eying for a couple decades and lets accept, we have the best chance now. Now or not for a very long time.

It is unfortunate to see top news channel powered by nation’s most powerful news paper reach a new low to “create” heart throbbing stories. The channel had publicized that Sachin and Ganguly were not consulted by Dravid before opting them out of the Twenty20 World Cup. It was stated that the duo were angry with Dravid over his decision and this had something to do with India’s poor showing in the Lord’s test.

Dravid was visibly unhappy with the news as it had no evidence or truth in it. This has not only hurt the sentiments of the national captain but the sentiments of each and every Indian who rests his confidence in the integrity of the news coming from the popular news channels. Such news might bring up TRP for the channel but for a nation that follows cricket religiously, it has derailed the hopes of a Times Now’s future stories.

Dravid and other cricketers involved in this saga shouldn’t be too bothered about this report and they should completely concentrate on the cricket ahead of them. The most important thing for Indian cricket is to win the test series in England and it has be at prime importance.

The Government of India should bring in amendments and policies to regulate such non-sense in journalism.