Sports books in India have tended to fall into three broad buckets till now. First, you have autobiographies of sporting icons – carefully crafted tomes filled with anecdotes, statistics and the inevitable buildup where insurmountable odds are overcome to reach pinnacles of success. The second type has almost always focussed on the sensational – what’s wrong with Indian sport, the corruption, the intrigues of the inner court, the nexus between politicians and administrators, etc. And the third, potted histories. There have been only the occasional thoughtful departure, such as Ramchandra Guha’s A Corner of a Foreign Field, Mukul Kesavan’s Men in White, or Rahul Bhattacharya’s Pundits From Pakistan.
Inevitably, a big chunk of all this has centred around the world of cricket. The game brought to us by the British in the 19th century has now seeped into the national consciousness in a manner so pervasive that mere statistical hurrahs can do justice no more. Cricket has two clear elements today – the sport and its surrounding drama – each standing tall on its own, though interdependent as they feed off each other.
Two strands
Boria Majumdar, a seasoned sports media veteran, tries to create a definitive compendium of these two clear elements over 400 plus pages. The book follows two distinct strands. On the one hand, the author’s strong background in old-fashioned hard research comes out clearly as he carefully details vital elements of the history of the sport, its initial days in India and how the British used it in a post-1857 Mutiny period to create new relationships between the “natives” and the “sahibs”. From a socio-political angle, the author then deftly guides you within the slow rising tempo of India’s rise in world cricket – from the 1930s, when Nayudu and Jardine made their mark right, through to the triumphant 1970s when India started winning overseas. Every subsequent high point, from the 1983 World Cup victory in London to the 2011 encore in Mumbai, comes up garnished and embellished with thoughts, quotes, fist-bumps and the odd sigh.
Beyond the statistics
The other motif is quite markedly different. Building an edifice through anecdotes, interviews, journalistic chutzpah and a heavy dollop of opinion, the author weighs in on every controversy the game has seen. From selection issues, hints of racism, and the early dominance of the original cricketing superpowers, right down to the rise of Jagmohan Dalmiya as he took India, or rather, Asia, to the power centre of world cricket, it’s all covered here. Majumdar does not hesitate to tackle controversial topics like match-fixing, Lalit Modi and his Taj Mahal – the IPL – the rise and fall of N Srinivasan, and the post Lodha Recommendations phase of Indian cricket. In the author’s hands, the last subject takes on apocalyptic hues through which the sport inevitably snaps back into the limelight time and again, as if to say that the game is still bigger than the drama.
These two lines of thinking could well have resulted in two separate books. But the Majumdar decided to mash them into a single item – think bun samosa – and take the reader in different directions with every successive chapter. While the researched elements stand out in their presentation, the anecdotal and personal elements could perhaps have done with a lighter touch. In a definitive history of the game and its influence over a billion Indians, more of the excellent data and research would have worked their magic over some of the scoop-driven anecdotal elements.
Still, cricket fans need not worry too much as the author also provides some rare and hitherto unseen photographs outlining the development of cricket through the ages, which I thought was a very juicy and unexpected treat. Talking of treats, Majumdar does reveal his fondness for food, as meticulous details of snacks and lunches somehow find their way into serious cricket analysis – which, I thought, was a quintessentially Bengali touch.
In sum, here is a book which casts multiple beams on cricket in India, delving into the shadowy darkness of the past and bringing to light the state of affairs today. Whether you like the game, or the drama, or both, you will get your fill.
Eleven Gods And A Billion Indians, Boria Majumdar, Simon & Schuster
Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience he also listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!