Former Australian Prime Minister Howard said that we should not see the Indian dominance in cricket on the negative side.

"India is the second most populous country in the world, it's cricket-mad, they are pluses"—he said.

"I think it's entirely wrong to look at the Indian involvement in cricket in a negative light. I think of those millions of people in India and the subcontinent ... who play cricket. They play it with a passion and love it"—he added.

It is to be noted that Howard is all set to become the ICC president in 2012. Howard will take this post once India's Sharad Pawar finishes his two-year term starting this June.

In 2004 Howard criticized Muralitharan as chucker. Reacting to this the Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said that they have forgiven Howard’s comments in this issue.

“We know that Howard as prime minister unruffled a few feathers calling Muttiah Muralitharan a chucker, but that is now a thing of the past”—he said.