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Faith in Sport and Passenger Panics

Priya Shah | 18:03 UK time, Monday, 21 August 2006

Allegations of cheating at cricket - drug taking in athletics, cycling and baseball ; are you losing faith in international sport?

And 2 Asian men are thrown off a plane after passengers thought they were acting suspiciously; sensible vigilance or a racist over reaction? Would you report somebody you didn't like the look of if you had to fly on a plane with them?

Farooq in Pakistan began with his reaction to the - he reckons the media have been too quick too judge the Pakistani players.

James Lawton of the Independent Newspaper believes that the cricket incident will put off fans in future - why bother paying the money to watch players behaving so badly? The fans were not told what was going on, it was disgraceful. The drugs and cheating in sport will in general put people off.

Steven in Southampton, UK
I was at the Oval on Sunday. Pakistan had a right to protest against the penalty the way they did this was wrong. The awarding of the game to England was the right result after the actions of the Pakistan team as any other outcome would have led to issues regarding the future conduct of all teams.

Husna from Jamaica
I'm a huge fan of Pakistani cricket and I dont agree with the way the team staged their protest but I can understand why they did it seeing that they felt upset about what they were accused of. It is now up to them to try to learn from their mistake.

Yaw in London suggested that the money in sport these days has corrupted the games.

Mike in UK
Umpires may have been either right or wrong about the ball tampering but that's beside the point, they are THE UMPIRES it's THEIR JOB. Pakistan completely totally and utterly in the wrong for behaving like spoilt petulant upitty *children* stamping their foot because they can't get their own way.

Alastair in Switzerland
The umpire is the person chosen to enforce the rules and settle disputes. He thought the ball had been tampered with - end of story.

Greg from the US may not know much about cricket, but he believes that there has always been some sort of cheating in sports - people are always trying to get the edge over their competitors, the means available are increasing, for example the types of drugs and technologies available to enhance performance. But has their been a "quantum leap" in cheating as James has suggested?

Raman the B
After the latest Floyd Landis, it is difficuilt to not look upon any superhuman achievement in sport with suspicion. I see nothing but trouble ahead. Why, on earth would these people not understand they are letting down millions of fans when they do this

Khaled from Bangladesh
Pakistan do this kind of abuse thing over and over again.They did it against Bangladesh in 2003 as a result Pakistan Captain Rashid had been banned for 5 matches

Perhaps we should just allow sportsmen to do whatever it itakes to win, rather some doing it and some not? Greg from US didn't agree, drugs and cheating is not enjoyable to watch and can be dangerous.

The conversation has moved on - Last week two men were taken off a flight bound for Manchester in the UK from malaga after some passengers became alarmed about what they described as suspicious behaviour.

The men, said to be of Asian or middle eastern appearance were taken off the flight and questioned for several hours. The men were allowed to return to the UK later in the week..

Were passengers right to raise the alarm..? If you were travelling with someone on public transport that you thought was behaving suspiciously, would you refuse top fly with them?

Or have you been the victim of such action? How did it make you feel? Can you understand people's suspicion?

Mike from Florida accepted that its not easy for people who are of Asian/Arab appearance like our other caller Saeed to be perpetually be treated as automatically suspicious. But he would report someone if he genuinely felt that something suspicious was happening. But he would think carefully about exactly what he did find suspicious - looking at watch or not drinking their soft drink is hardly something to panic about.

He also agreed with Amira, who said that we should all have more faith in the security staff. As a Muslim wearing the hijab (headscarf) she does notice people looking at her.

David, Newport

Inevitably, in the current climate, people are nervous and scared. They also know that the authorities are reluctant to apply passenger profiling for fear of breaking discrimination laws. It is therefore understandable if members of the public use their own judgment in protecting themselves. Sometimes they will make errors or cause offense, and this is regrettable.It is, however, better than being dead!

Saeed blames the media for creating an impression of terrorists being of a particular "look".

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