Cricket has promoted national integration and is a wonderful sport to play and watch. But, as the saying goes, anything in excess is harmful. Our craze for cricket is indeed an excess and will inevitably be harmful. Cricketers are paid professionals who possess a unique skill set; comparing them to god is absurdity.
Prateek Maheshwari,
Bhopal
Cricket in India has been hijacked by corporate stakeholders who invest billions of rupees in the game and players who expect huge returns. This is evident from the tight schedules of most cricketers. In this context, whether the government needs to reward them with huge amounts of money needs to be debated.
P.S.S. Murthy,
Hyderabad
At the risk of being called a cricket heretic, I shall ask a naive question: where do the huge sums gifted to cricketers come from? Is there a cricket relief fund? If the source is the budgetary allocation for sports in general, let me, even as the world around me celebrates our victory, lament the premature death of many other sporting activities.
L. Balagopal,
Hyderabad
I was delighted to see so many right-thinking people expressing their views — I am referring to the letters to the editor on April 5 and 6. Indeed, we Indians haven't got our priorities right. Corrupt politicians indulging in scams, running into crores, in no way justifies the cash awards for our crorepati cricketers. I fail to understand why other sports in our country receive a step-motherly treatment. How can we expect our athletes to shine at the Olympics when they feel overshadowed by the cricketing mania?
Eugene D'Vaz,
Tiruchi
Like all Indians, I too was overjoyed when India won the final — I celebrated, sent SMSes. But when I heard about the cash rewards, I wondered whether cash is the only way to motivate us to perform well. Who gave our governments the right to squander the taxpayers' money thus? Go ahead, confer all sorts of Ratnas and Vibhushans on the players, start academies in their names but please put cash to better use.
Dev Pradaan,
Madurai
Even thousands of crores of rupees cannot match the spirit of integration brought on by Team India on Saturday. National integration, an important factor in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural land with more than one billion people, could not have been brought about more effectively. There is no need to compare cricket with other games. People have a right to respond to a game of their choice.
M. Vathapureeswaran,
Tiruchengode
