As bitterness threatened to creep into rival camps over Inzamam-ul Haq's controversial dismissal, India coach Greg Chappell on Friday said some emotion was needed to make cricket worth watching.
The former Australian captain, obviously not alien to verbal battles, also felt it was natural to have "personality clashes" but said such duels did not take away anything from the game.
"Most games at the international level are played in very good spirit. There are some personality clashes from time to time and there's a bit of emotion that comes out from each game. If there's no emotion in cricket at this level it would not be worth watching," Chappell said on Friday.
The Aussie said as long as the emotions were within the range of acceptable behaviour, things were fine.
"The important thing is that captains and umpires keep it within the bounds of what's acceptable and if that's the case it's OK. By and large the spirit in which the game is played is very good," he said.
Some odd incidents were bound to happen from time to time, he said before adding that these help make "life good" for the media.
"We will have the odd incident from time to time and it obviously makes life good to you guys. Why would you complain," Chappell said.
{{/usCountry}}"We will have the odd incident from time to time and it obviously makes life good to you guys. Why would you complain," Chappell said.
{{/usCountry}}The dismissal of Inzamam -- he was given out for 'obstructing the field' in the Peshawar one-dayer after the Indians appealed -- triggered off a controversy over whether the visitors had marred the spirit of the game by appealing.