John Wright S Indian Summers

In an experiment not expected to work, former New Zealand captain John Wright was named coach of the Indian cricket team in October 2000. In this volume he provides an insight into the vast scale, passion and politics of cricket in a country with a billion fans.

Research in colonial studies has traditionally revolved around the historical, political and economic aspects of the colonial regime. The case is no different with the British Empire in India. The Empire was, however, built less by military force and more through cultural reinforcement. To this end, the British engaged many tools – religion, language and sport. Among the three Cs of Victorian England that defined civilisation, Cricket stood on par with Christianity and the Classics. Beyond being a sport, cricket was the Englishman’s representation of his ‘English-ness’ in the colonies and a tool used for colonisation – a scantily researched area. This book traces, through the colonial postulates of Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha, the colonial path cricket took to its growth in the colony. The game moved from the ‘exclusivity’ of the English to the ‘mimicry’ of the natives as a part of the informal modes of rule employed in a colonial framework. Once formal modes were employed in the Empire, phases of ‘cultural reinforcement’ by the colonists followed by ‘patronage’ by the natives took over the spread of the game. Historical narratives are filled with examples supporting each phase in the sport. The very same tool that was used to establish the native’s ‘effeminacy’ was used, finally, to invert the hegemony. The book argues how decolonisation, in India’s case, did not occur through ‘rejection’ of the colonial culture, but, paradoxically, through ‘adaptation’ and ‘assimilation’ in clear colonial terms. This discussion achieves recency and relevance through its exposition of the telling decolonising moves in cricket to ‘subvert authority’ through the IPL. Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the carnival helps view the shift of cricket from the colonial to the carnival mode.

The 1970s was the coming of age of Indian cricket. With a fantastic 1971 tour of West Indies and IndiaÕs first series win in England, this was an era when India learnt to fight and win. These seven Tests exemplified the best of Indian cricket in this decade. This is Part 2 of FROM MUMBAI TO DURBAN

Crazy about cricket? Mad about Mahi? Waiting with fingers crossed for the World Cup? Here’s a book that will help you navigate your way through the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Filled with fun facts; quick and quirky history; tell-your-friends-about-it trivia; games; cartoons and information about key players; teams and even stadia; this is the ideal companion to enjoy the World Cup with! So if you want to know: Who was the person who witnessed two ten-wicket hauls forty-three years apart How cricket got its name (Wooden planks; wicket gates and some Dutch is involved.) What were the highlights at each World Cup since 1979 Which 9 ODI records Sachin might break (Let’s hope it is not the one for most runs on a losing side!) Cricket! is the book you must have!

‘That day I cried like a baby not because I feared what cancer would do but because I didn’t want the disease. I wanted my life to be normal, which it could not be.’ For the first time Yuvraj Singh tells the real story behind the 2011 World Cup when on-the-field triumph hid his increasingly puzzling health problems and worrying illnesses. In his debut book The test of my life, he reveals how—plagued with insomnia, coughing fits that left him vomiting blood, and an inability to eat—he made a deal with God. On the night before the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final, Yuvraj prayed for the World Cup in return for anything God wanted. In this book, he lays bare his fears, doubts, and the lows he experienced during chemotherapy—when he lost his energy, his appetite, and his hair—and his battle to find the will to survive. Poignant, personal, and moving—The test of my life—is about cancer and cricket; but more importantly, it is about the human will to fight adversity and triumph despite all odds.

Cricket is an enduring paradox. On the one hand, it symbolises much that is outmoded: imperialism; a leisured elite; a rural, aristocratic Englishness. On the other, it endures as a global game and does so by skilful adaptation, trading partly on its mythic past and partly on its capacity to repackage itself. This ambitious new history recounts the politics of cricket around the world since the Second World War, examining key cultural and political themes, including decolonisation, racism, gender, globalisation, corruption and commercialisation. Part One looks at the transformation of cricket cultures in the ten territories of the former British Empire in the years immediately after 1945, a time when decolonisation and the search for national identity touched every cricket playing region in the world. Part Two focuses on globalisation and the game’s evolution as an international sport, analysing: social change and the Ashes; the campaigns for new cricket formats; the development of the women’s game; the new breed of coach; the limits to the game’s global expansion; and the rise of India as the world’s leading cricket power. Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game, 1945-2017 is fascinating reading for anybody interested in the contemporary history of sport.

'Does cricket make money in order to exist, or does it exist in order to make money?' In the last three years, cricket has changed more completely than in the preceding three decades, revolutionised by a racy new format, Twenty20, and a glamorous new competition, the Indian Premier League. How did India come to run world cricket? How did clubs owned by billionaires and Bollywood stars begin to shove international competition aside? How did money unite players and divide administrators, amid allegations of massive corruption? Gideon Haigh has followed cricket's biggest story since Kerry Packer's 'World Series' from the beginning: Sphere of Influenceis the result. This insightful collection brings the struggle to save cricket's soul into sharp and disturbing focus.