Of Spins, Sixes and Surprises
Martin Chandler |Published: 2023
Pages: 298
Author: Biswas, Shom and Banerjea, Titash
Publisher: Rupa
Rating: 3 stars
For once the authors of this one probably hoped that the fruits of their labours would be out of date almost as soon as the book was published. Alas for them and their countrymen however we now know that to the surprise of many Australia managed to lower Indian colours in the 2023 World Cup Final, so it will be a little while yet before the final chapter of the book needs revising.
The book’s sub-title gives the game away as far as its content is concerned, 50 Defining Moments in Indian Cricket. This allows the authors to avoid the need to concentrate simply on individual matches and to give some context as well. Thus despite the chapter on the historic tour of England in 1971 concentrating on the famous match at The Oval where Chandra spun India to victory the authors are able to look briefly at the rest of the series.
So in truth the book is something of a history of Indian cricket told through the stories of the most iconic on field moments. On that basis more of the chosen matches are recent rather than found too far back in the past, but then that is inevitable. If there were just a single defining moment in the history of Indian cricket that would, for most, be Kapil Dev’s lifting of the 1983 World Cup, and that is the subject of chapter 15, so not even a third of the way through the book.
The book begins with what will doubtless be its one moment of controversy, and a celebration of the achievements of Ranji and more particularly his unbeaten 154 in the second Test of the 1902 Ashes series. That Ranji was the first Indian cricketer to stamp an indelible mark on the game is not where the disagreement will come, but the reality is that Ranji’s contributions to and interest in the development of the game in India were at best minimal, and the first chapter should really have been about the two tours to England by the Parsees in the 1886 and 1888.
That point aside there is plenty here to keep the casual reader interested. The authors look through the progress of Indian cricket from the tour of England in 1911, through the next visit in 1932 when the inaugural Test was played at Lord’s, and beyond that to the regular successes of recent Indian sides.
There is no dramatic new research here for those with an established interest in the history of the game, but for new fans who want to learn more about Indian cricket’s past this is a very good introduction, and an entertainingly written one.
And I should stress that the book is not concerned solely with Test cricket. There is also much on the subject of the game’s shorter formats, and that is where, certainly for the non-Indian reader, a good deal of the book’s interest lies. By way of example the account of the Asia Cup final in Sharjah in 1986 that was played between India and Pakistan and ended in the narrowest of defeats for the Indians is a most interesting story, and one which had I had no prior knowledge of.
It is slightly frustrating that each chapter concludes only with a potted score rather than a full scorecard, but then I suppose there are space constraints which need to be borne in mind. Another disappointment with any cricket book is an absence of photographs, although again I appreciate there are usually costs to that and, in this case, at least there are a selection of very good caricatures from the pen of Arun Ramkumar.
All told Of Spins, Sixes and Surprises is a decent first book from Biswas and Banerjee, and I shall be interested to see what they do next.
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