Cricket remains the most controversial of games. At times it is hard to remember that it is only a game and supposed to be fun. The Afridi controversy, the pitch invasion at the WACA and the argument over John Howard as a candidate to serve as the ICC’s deputy president in 2010 can make the followers of the game despair. Cricket needs to stop thinking defensively and cast itself as breeding ground for diversity and toleration, writes Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

But, then, cricket stopped being merely a recreation long ago and instead became both an industry and an expression of national pride. Once its leading nations became independent it was only a matter of time before they began asserting themselves.

Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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