Sports lettersGiddins injustice

Sir: Is anyone prepared to stand up in support of Ed Giddins, the Sussex cricketer who has been barred from making his living for almost two years because he allegedly took an illegal drug, cocaine?

I am appalled at the unfairness of the treatment he received. It is a potentially tragic injustice. I am not defending what Giddins did, and it may be he did nothing wrong. I am challenging the punishment, and wondering whatever happened to the sense of fair play in which British people once took pride.

Giddins supposedly took a banned substance. No one, as far as I know, has suggested he took this substance to improve his performance on the cricket field. If Giddins did something wrong, he should be punished. But, unless he did it to improve his performance on the cricket field, the punishment he has received is grotesque.

In the worst of cases, what Giddins did caused no harm to anyone but himself. Even if he is guilty as charged, his "crime" is minor by any standards.

MICHAEL PRENTICE

Neapean, Ontario