A fellow reader's response

In my letter published under the caption "Steve Waugh's comments"(DS 7 June) the whole theme and spirit of my letter was to unmask the double standard of racists . But unfortunately instead of appreciating the point, my fellow reader tried to counter me quoting Murali's mother saying Murali considered Steve as a friend of him. Good enough, that's the way it should be. If one peeps through this statement he would agree that it is the broadness on the part of Muttiah Muralitharan and his mother to think Steve as his (Murali's) friend. Then again Murali's mother also said that she didn't want him to go and play cricket in Australia, politely declining Steve's request. Murali also shares the view. This itself indicates that Murali and his mother have a principle that they don't want to compromise , regardless of whoever they are dealing with. May I remind Mr. Mustafa that Murali recently said that on the one hand Mr. Howard (Australian PM) calls him a 'chucker' and in the next sentence he welcomes him (Murali) to play cricket in Australia. But Mr. Steve doesn't know that anything like that has been said! What inference one would draw from this? This is sheer hypocrisy. And this is the thing that I wanted to emphasise in my previous letter.

Secondly, may I humbly remind my fellow reader that terms like 'third world', 'poor nation', 'black & white' are the ill products of countries like where he (Mr. Mustafa) is living at present.