Sports Letters: Padded extras

Sir: It is just not cricket that a batsman with a poor technique against spin bowling can pad away with impunity most balls bowled to him. I propose that such 'batsmen' should be hit where it hurts them most - in the scorebook. Whenever there is deliberate padding up the umpire should signal, say, a non-bye and the scorers deduct a run from the offending batsman or from his team's total if he is out in the red. The leg-before- wicket rule remains unchanged. According to my calculations, during one of the sessions in the recent Test matches in India, England batsmen registered a minus score.

Yours faithfully,

JITEN BARDWAJ

Hertford

23 March