Sir: Although I love cricket, I really have little interest
in the infantile squabble between, Botham and Imran Khan, but as one of the NCOs who served in India in the days of the Raj I do object strongly to Tunku Varadarajan's descriptions of the British soldier as hard, coarse and loutish. Wherever he served in the world the British soldier has always been recognised as one of our best ambassadors, and I can assure you that none of the men in my own regi- ment on the North-West Frontier before the war ever treated Indians in the fashion that he describes.
I can only think that Varadarajan's knowledge of the British Army has been gathered from Rudyard Kipling's writings and not from any first-hand knowledge.
As an educated Indian, his manners leave a lot to be desired and whatever he thinks of Botham or Imran Khan, one 'a boil on a yokel's nose' and the other 'a pig', they are not descriptions that an educated man would use. Gunga Din was much more of a gentleman than Tunku.
J.F. Squire
Captain (Late) 16th/Sth The Queen's Royal Lancers 17 Eggars Field, Bentley, Farnham, Surrey
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