What happened in the Asia Cup Tournament in Dubai recently needs no repetition. Both India and Pakistan cut a sorry figure in terms of cricketing ethos, etiquette and ethics, behaving as if they were playing street cricket. This has shocked the entire cricketing world and made the aficionados of cricket concerned about the future of the game.

In the realm of sports, cricket is the only game that proudly bears the tag of a 'gentleman's game'. Mind you, this tag or sobriquet is not for nothing. Right from the beginning, the image of cricket has been that of a 'gentleman's game', played by those who value(d) its ethos and essence.

Remember the greats of yore like the magnanimous Sir Frank Worrell, the legendary Garfield Sobers, the refined Ted Dexter or the calm and cool pacer Ray Lindwall, who hugged India's Vijay Hazare when Hazare scored twin centuries against Sir Don Bradman's 'Invincibles' in 1948, with scores of 116 and 145 in the Adelaide Test.

Where has the bonhomie gone? Where's that camaraderie? What happened to this 'gentleman's game' that today it has nosedived to become gully cricket? Famous cricket scribe Gideon Haigh is of the opinion that........

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