Book Review
Indian Cricket: Then And Now; Edited By Venkat Sundaram; Harper Sport (An Imprint Of Harper Collins Publishers); Rs599; 2023; Pp 339.
By Arvindar Singh
This book has been published at an appropriate time as the World Cup frenzy dies down but cricket is still in the minds of our cricket loving country. It has some very interesting pieces on cricketing legends and by cricketing legends themselves. The editor of this volume, Venkat Sundaram, is a first class cricketer who played and captained the Delhi and North Zone teams. His earlier works include “The Cricket Coaching Handbook” and “The Sardar of Spin” an anthology of writings on Bishen Singh Bedi.
In the foreword, Rahul Dravid, the former Indian Captain, notes, “From a game once sponsored and nurtured by the royal class, cricket has come to be accepted as a game for everybody… the fact that India has won two 50-over World Cups and the T20 World Cup is a matter of national pride.” Interestingly, the erudite parliamentarian, Shashi Tharoor, has also contributed to this compilation of writings. He mentions some golden moments of an anonymous sari-clad beauty running out and giving a public kiss to Abbas Ali Baig in Bombay while he returned to the pavilion and the outrage in the country when Salim Durrani was dropped from the national team during the England tour in 1972.
The debut of Kapil Dev popularly known as the “Haryana Hurricane” in 1978 against Pakistan is well chronicled in the book. We learn that he was able to tuck in a good quantity of food during his early days and leave his team mates without their share of the diet as he had done justice to that as well! He is rightly described as being “truly gritty, passionate, determined and never-say-die player who made every Indian cricket fan proud”. Kapil Dev was chosen by “Wisden” as the Indian Cricketer of the Century, an honour well deserved, no doubt.
Michael Dalvi, an ace cricketer of his era, also traces in his piece how Indian Cricket has evolved over the years. He remarks that his monthly BCCI pension is more than he earned during the entire eighteen years he played first class cricket! He brings back memories of his time at The Doon School under the tutelage of the legendary Mr Holdsworth, whom the boys called `Holdy` and had played in the inaugural Ranji Trophy Match. He traces his career in Chennai and Kolkata playing for the state teams of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.
An old article written by the late Vijay Merchant is a gem in the contributions in the collection. He recalls his innings with Mushtaq Ali in Manchester in 1936, when in their partnership both of them nearly broke an over two-decade old record. Champagne cricket as it is called is an additional way to describe the gentleman`s game and the duo of Merchant and Mushtaq amply qualify for this characterisation. Merchant, the man who made eleven double centuries during his cricketing career, was a luminary of the sport in his own right.
Shabhangi Kulkarni, former Captain of the Indian Woman`s Cricket, has written on Woman`s Cricket, a sport seldom given coverage by the print and electronic media. The Woman`s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) has completed fifty years this year. During the initial years it was no smooth sailing for these budding cricketers, but passion for sportsmanship was the guiding spirt which allowed them to face surmounting odds. Kulkarni is able to give a graphic description of the tours of New Zealand and England in the early years. Also mentioned are the contributions of Shantha Rangaswamy, Behroze Edulji, Susan Itricheria, Sudha Shah and Diana Edulji in setting up the team during the formative years of the WCAI.
On the whole, this treatise will arouse the interests of cricket fans as well as the general reading public, as it is a well brought out publication which holds the reader.
