Please don't snatch away our heroes.

Men love sports. Even those of us who are not equipped physically to be great at sports love to watch top players battling each other for victory. Whether various games were invented as surrogate for war we do not know but the passion of supporters who are prepared to travel hundreds to miles to support their team is obvious. Even an indoor game, which is played sitting down, like chess, is pure warfare. There is a king, a queen, 2 knights, 2 castles, or rooks, and 2 bishops. You win by capturing the king, as in a real battle. In contact sports, such as boxing, rugby, ice hockey and American football there is real danger of serious injury, even death, and we can only imagine the enormous courage it must take to participate in these sports. Although not really a contact sport batting against fast bowlers in cricket can be dangerous as the death of Phil Hughes of Australia has proved. To stand tall against a hard ball coming at you at over 140 km per hour and then to twist around to hook it for runs needs fast reflexes, keen eyesight and nerves of steel. There was a time when Indian batsmen were so scared to face bowlers like Hall and Griffiths that 2 wicketkeepers, Kunderan and Engineer, were picked to open the innings for India. That is why Sunil Gavaskar who opened against fast bowlers in a floppy hat was a great batsman. Raman Lamba died when a pull shot hit him on the forehead and 2 days back an Israeli umpire died when hit by a ball on his jaw. These are freak accidents which cannot be prevented. Phil Hughes was hit on his neck while trying to pull a bouncer. The death of a young man is always sad but to postpone the first test match at Brisbane because of his death is an insult to his memory and to the pleasure he gave to thousands of people by his fearless batting. His death seems to have released a whole bunch of wimps who would like to ban bouncers or encase batsmen in body armour for protection. Why not play with rubber balls and bowl under arm? In western countries parents are stopping children from playing outdoors for fear of injuries or sexual predators. Stuck indoors children play violent video games, watch pornography online or fall prey to online pedophiles. Today, politicians are passing laws restricting individual freedoms in the name of security, political correctness or the environment. They are monitoring our phone calls, cctv cameras monitor us wherever we are or whatever we are doing and advances in biometrics are stripping us naked in public. Sport is the only arena left where we are still free, where we worship our heroes unashamedly and where we rejoice their success or mourn their failure with them. Even this last freedom they want to snatch away from us.