By George! Wasn't Bernard Shaw right when he said "Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11 thousand fools watch!". Maybe he was a wee bit wrong - should have been 11 million fools instead. This issue of suspending half the Indian Cricket Team has evoked responses ranging from indignation to colorful language. Being the man of peace that I am, I don't subscribe to either. My raised left middle finger is my rather subdued reaction.

The episode of Deness the Menace, is just another in a long line of similar episodes. If you are a white cricketer or even a black man in a white team, you can get away with just about anything. But if you are a brownskin or a blackskin, then my colored cousin, you better discard those whites and clothe yourself in sheepskin. For only toughened hide can keep those abusive slurs from getting to you.

So the Indians bought the game into disrepute - thatz the charge. Mike Deness suspended 6 members of a 11 member international cricket team for probably the first time in the history of the sport. Wonder who brought disrepute to the game. And whatz with this freaking concept of excessive appealing and putting umpires under pressure? Well, is that exactly not what the umpires are paid for - working under pressure? Should an umpire wilt or succumb to pressure if the bowler or the fielders over-appeal? Conversely, would an umpire refuse to raise his finger if the bowler decides not to appeal?

And does the ICC ever think of the immense pressure that players are subjected to while playing in pressure-cooker type cauldrons of stadia - under lights, tens of thousands of spectators, television cameras and millions of TV viewing eyes. Will the stadia be closed down and television cameras banned? Will the game be played in sterile environs so the players do not feel the pressure? The ICC wants the wealth that the spectators and the television audience brings but is not willing to evolve and grow with the changes that the game is undergoing. The players have to face the pressure so ICC can grow into a fat pig but the umpires always want to officiate only in the Garden of Eden.

Lets get this right. Agreed, cricket is a gentleman's game. But cricket is also fast turning professional. When the going gets professional, the competitive get going. And there is no competition without aggression. So the appeals will only get more and more vociferous and the gestures violent. The ICC, the umpires and the match referees need to learn to evolve with the game. Gone are the days when quaint victorian ladies in frilly white cotton long gowns and white parasols watched the game from under the clubhouse sipping copious quanities of iced lemonade.

And let them all remember who have slighted India in the past few days - we have the biggest money, muscle, talent and the audience for the game. No India, no cricket. Revenues in Sharjah plummetted this year as India pulled out of the tournament. The last world cup in England was fed by the money that cricket-worshpping Indians spent in buying tickets. Lemme say this again - No India, no cricket. So before you suspend half the Indian team Mr. Deness, remember you might not receive that fat paycheck next month if you suspend Indians this week. What goes around, comes around.

Another point: He is hailed as not just the greatest batsman in both versions of contemporary world cricket, but Sachin Tendulkar is also endowed with a shrewd cricketing brain. In his nearly-decade-long experience, his image has not for once been tarnished. Not for match fixing (that claimed many a holy-cow - including white cows), not for sledging, not for gesturing and definitely not for ball tampering. And does Mike Deness really believe that Sachin would be so careless as to lift/pick the seam of the ball under the glare of the cameras? Did anyone ever care to check if he did have fingernails to pick the seam? Batsmen and bowlers cannot afford to grow fingernails. A lightening delivery on finger tips with long nails (even if protected by a pair of gloves) could put a batsman out of action for weeks. So with bowlers. Ever tried fast bowling with long fingernails or even the "mixed-bag" that Sachin normally bowls? You can't bowl with long fingernails Mr. Deness... not unless you happen to be a stunning broad - you can then bowl over, maybe.