Cricket in not just a game,
it’s a religion, for majority of Indians. A religion that bleeds blue and act as
a glue to bind us all together, as no other religion , sports or event does. It’s our
colonial masters, who brought cricket to Indian shores, but they never would have
imagined, two centuries later, this game will transform into such a colossal that
will have no parallels. Cricket in India brings everyone together: Bollywood celebrities,
politicians, bureaucrats, business tycoons, aristocrats, proletarians, media
barons and plebeian. They all cheer every run scored, every wicket taken in
unison; the result of the game reflects the mood of the nation. Somber nation means loss in a cricket match, fun and frolic in the country is representative of an Indian victory.
The nation beleaguered with so many issues find solace in cricket. The players
are revered as living deity by more than one billion people. Boria Majumdar, a
Rhodes Scholar, cricket historian and eminent sports journalist has aptly named
his latest book on the history of Indian as “Eleven God and A Billion Indians”
published by Simon and Schuste.
The book has a remarkable cover: golden
in color, the front side has a photograph of two Indian batsman in the middle
of the pitch hugging each other, with a sea of Indian spectator clad in blue waving
the umpteen tricolors in the background; the back side has a letter written by
the Cricket Advisory Committee on 17.06.2017 to BCCI regarding selection of
coach, which is like a teaser. The book is divided in five parts and contains 450 pages.
After outbreak of the match fixing
scam, Indian cricket was at a crossroad. The fans had lost faith and were perplexed by the event. The first part of the book deals with this episode
and entire chapter is dedicated to it. The writer talks about the stupendous
India Australia series of 2001, and how this series restored the faith of the
fans in the game after the murky incident like match fixing. The captaincy reign
of Saurov Ganguly is extensively written, including the Greg Chappell fiasco and his
difference with the KKR coach John Buchanan. The part two provides an insight into
the BCCI- an oxymoron. How the evolution of BCCI happened from a cashless organisation
to a cash rich behemoth. The section also portrait the Indians biggest brand
and an incident that stopped time in Indian: IPL and
retirement of Sachin Tendulkar. Indian team victory against the mighty West Indies in
1971 at Port of Spain, the remarkable story of 1983 World Cup is covered in part
three of the book.
There is a fascinating chapter on Ranji’s
love life and cricket in part four of the book, along with how the sport was
played on communal line back then; debut of India in test cricket, political
backstage in that era, stories of ego clashes over the years are also covered in this part. Part five is
dedicated to the modern deity: Virat Kohli, and a chapter on woman cricket in
India is there too. A complete section in the book dedicated to the photographic history of
Indian cricket. You will find photographs from different eras, postcards,
cartoons and palimpsest of autographs.
The book contains everything: anecdotes,
interviews, conspiracy, thriller, politics, passion, emotional drama. The most fascinating
aspect of the book is, it can be a case study for the student of economics and
management (writing on BCCI and IPL), for a political analyst and administrators (writing on politics
in BCCI) as well as for those who loves history and reading in general (as this book is a
historiography of Indian Cricket). The writer must be given full credit for language, story telling and the
research put in, even though there is an error when he narrates an incident
regarding Roberto Baggio missing a crucial penalty in FIFA 1990 football world Cup.
Roberto Baggio did not miss the penalty in 1990 world cup, he indeed missed one
in 1994 football World Cup final against Brazil in USA. In the words of the author the book is “a
story of ecstasy and agony, of adversity and triumph, of corruption and
cleansing and, most importantly, of obscurity and intense public scrutiny. When
I discussed the autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar-Playing it my, which Boria
has co-authored - with my friend, “It
did not do justice to the Legend” my friend retorted. This time around, Boria
not only did justice, but delivered a gem to be cherished as a reward by all the
cricket lovers and readers across globe. Holy book of Indian cricket has arrived. A must read. Happy Reading
Nice insight on the book Sunny. You have developed my interest in the book.
ReplyDeletePS I am one of those billion Indians.