The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Wonderful Book Which Traces Entire Arc Of Cricket In India

 

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Wonderful Book Which Traces Entire Arc Of Cricket In India

“I am recalling an encounter with a Pakistani cricket fan. It happened, of all places, on the outskirts of the city of Copenhagen, after the Davis cup Tennis match between Sweden and Denmark. Once the Tennis ended, I walked back to the suburban station to take the train to go back to the town. I bought my ticket and ascended to the steps of the platform; when I reached there, I saw a man of my complexion, somewhat older than myself, holding a cricket bat. I silently went to him and took the bat from his hand, checked the grip and balance and played a cover drive in the air. As I handed the bat back to the stranger, the train arrived at the platform, and we both got in. After the train moving towards Copenhagen, we introduced ourselves. He was Ali from Lahore; I was Ram from Bangalore. I was merely visiting Denmark, whereas he had lived here for twenty years. Ali had worked in Textile factory for a decade, acquired Danish Citizenship , made himself eligible for social security, quits his job and devoted himself to his one and only passion, the game of cricket. Every weekend he played a pick-up match with other former Pakistani guest workers in a ground that lay in his sporting suburb of the city. During the week he watched cricket at home, as it was telecast from around the world”. This is fantastically written by well-known Indian historian Ramchandra Guha in his book on cricket which titled as “The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with The Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind.  It is a conversation between an author and a Pakistani cricket fan in Copenhagen.  This conversation has been beautifully narrated by a great historian. I really enjoyed this book and read without any hesitation. This book is nothing but cricketing memoir which gives the information about cricket played at various levels in India like school, College, Clubs, State and Country.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Neville Cardus, a great English writer, has rightly said that the elements are cricket's presiding geniuses and Cricket more than any other game is inclined towards sentimentalism and one can realise this at the time of reading the writing on cricket. It is true that any writing on cricket is sub-genre in literature to produce historiography of cricket. In India, this game has become so popular and is getting played at every corner of the country. This can also be found in this book of Ramchandra Guha.  Ramchandra Guha is my favourite writer. Before this book he had written three books on cricket. His first book was,” A Corner of a foreign field published in 2002, Spin and other turns published in 1994 and Wickets in the east in 1992.  In one book on cricket i.e. The Picador Book of Cricket, Ramchandra Guha has beautifully compiled peerless writing about cricket which includes the writing of Neville Cardus, C.L.R. James, John Arlott, V.S. Naipaul, Suresh Menon, A. A. Thomson, Richie Benaud and Jack Fingleton. As a historian, he has written the history of contemporary India by writing India after Gandhi and biography of Mahatma Gandhi in two parts. He has even written books on the environment.  The Commonwealth of Cricket is his fourth book on cricket.

Even though the book mentioned about cricket at all levels, it starts with the memoir of his boyhood days where he learnt to play cricket. In the beginning, he mentioned his cricketing days in school, college and his childhood days in Dehradun. He has also written about his cricket lover maternal uncle N Duraiswamy who encourages writer’s love for cricket and always ensured that his nephew is entangled with the game by becoming the youngest member of one of the Bangalore oldest cricket clubs named as Friends Union Cricket Club. Guha has shown deep respect to his uncle even though he differs politically with his nephew. It looks like this book is tribute to N Duraiswamy. Like his uncle Mr. Guha has also given respect to his father by dedicating this book to him. He said that his father always used to speak with him about cricketers like C Ramaswami, B Frank and Lala Amarnath.  His father was a great fan of Lala Amarnath who was the first Indian to score a century. In the first two chapters he mentioned that it was his father’s choice to allow the writer to play the game of cricket.  He also stated that his cricket education also proceeded through the books which his father has given to him. His father purchased the cricket books written by great writers like A. A. Thomson, John Nyren, H S Althan and E W Swanton and Nevil Cardus from book shop Ramakrishna and sons at Delhi. 

When writers started playing cricket in early sixties, India was not so popular in the world of cricket at international level but this game has become very popular in India. He has devoted one chapter about Karnataka Cricket. He has said that he was very much happy when Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy match in 1974. At the time of giving an interview to Rajdeep Sardesai, Guha said that he did bother whether India won or not but Karnataka should win the Ranji matches. He further said that whenever India used to play the test match, he felt that Rahul Dravid should score a century and Anil Kumble should take more wickets. He also criticized KSCA for not naming the stands in Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore with great players like G Vishwanath, E R P Prasanna, B Chandrasekhar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venketesh Prasad etc. He has asked the secretary of KSCA, Brijesh Patel, for naming the stands with the name of players of Karnataka who have played international cricket for India; but the same has been rejected by Brijesh Pate with remarks ``Then everyone will begin asking”.  Even though, he has written about his love for Karnataka Cricket, he has also narrated his cricket days in Dehradun School and St. Stephen’s College in Delhi

Ramchandra Guha has devoted a full chapter on Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. During the interview with Rajdeep Sardesai, Guha said that Sachin Tendulkar is his all-time favourite cricketer. In the book Guha wrote that there had been fine Indian batsmen before Tendulkar like Marchant and Hazare in 40s, Gavaskar and Vishwanath in 70s, yet their game was based on technique and artistry, whereas Tendulkar exuded power and domination. He was a magnificent attacking batsman, who took the game to the bowlers. Although he was a little man, he stood up to the best fast bowlers of the day.  Guha is also a historian and has deep knowledge about cricket. With his historian perspective he compared Tendulkar with great Pakistani Cricket player Inzamam-Ul-Haq. He said that the relationship between Inzamam-Ul-Haq and Tendulkar was always similar to Wally Hammond to Don Bradman. But Tendulkar remained the greatest cricketer of his age whereas Inzamam-Ul-Haq  had to contend with being the Walter Hammond of his day. Guha also said that future historians will speak of the Age of Tendulkar, as Today’s historians speak of the Age of Grace, the Age of Bradman and the Age of Sobers.  I feel that every cricket lover should read this chapter which is a great appreciation of a great player from a great historian who is having deep knowledge of the game.

Guha has spoken about Indian as well as International cricketers of the last five decades. In the chapter Handshakes with heroes, he has written about the Indian players who had played cricket in 60s, 70s and afterwards. The list includes M A K Pataudi, M L Jayasimha, Abas Ali Beg, Hanumant Singh, Sunil Gavaskar, G Vishwanath, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkataraghvan, Kapil Dev, B Chandrasekhar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Farokh Engineer, Mohammed Azharuddin, Hemu Adhikari and two greatest Indian cricketers Vinoo Mankad and Vijay Hazare. Guha has written in such a way, we also started remembering about these players their contributions to this great game. He has also written one chapter for great Pakistani players and the name of the chapter is Some Favourite Pakistanis. He started with the first family of Pakistan Cricket and wrote stories of some legendary cricketers like Hanif Mohammad, Mushtaq Mohammed, Sayeed Anwar, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Majid Khan, Waqar Younis etc. On Javed Miandad, there is a long section. Author has also mentioned about the autobiography of Jave Miandad which appreciated Imran Khan as a cricketer and also criticized as a team man. Guha has also mentioned that his autobiography also stated that linking any sport with patriotism is very wrong and quoted the words of Javed Miandad.” A nation Self-esteemed cannot be held hostage to its sporting fortunes. One has to stop seeing cricket as a proxy war and cricket loss as a political failure”.

Like Indian and Pakistani Cricket players, Guha has also mentioned some great players from the country Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In the Chapter, Accidental Administrator, Guha has been appointed by supreme court of India as a one of the Administrators in the Committee of Administrator to do the clean up of the cricket as per the reforms suggested by Justice reforms. He was surprised when his onetime great heroes  like Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid were not ready to support him. Therefore, he said that, “What surprised and shocked me more was how amoral India’s top cricketers were”.  He further said, “I could understand why the BCCI’s officials were overawed by the aura around former and current superstars. But our chairman (Vinod Rai), a distinguished civil servant, was similarly cowed by sporting reputations puzzled and dismayed me”. His suggestion to mark Vinoo Mankad’s birth centenary on an IPL match-day is dead batted and not to involve Virat Kohali as a Captain to select the coach of India. All his suggestions have not been considered, therefore, Guha resigned as a COA. In the lady chapter, Guha has spoken about Varieties of Cricketing Chauvinism. As per the book, a certain national chauvinism is endemic in cricket. According to Guha,” There are two fundamental axes of cricketing chauvinism: of nation and of generation. Every cricket fan almost without exception is born with them, and most cricket fans never outgrow them”.  It is very interesting to read this chapter also.

Friends, this is the best book on cricket written by a great historian who is having a deep knowledge of cricket. Every cricket lover will enjoy this book which covers every aspect of the game which is being played in India across all levels i.e. from school level to National level.  It is not only a book but it is a very personal and complex account about India’s most popular game.

Good one to read. Do not miss it.

Mumbai

11/04/2021