Author(s): Boria Majumdar

Cricket

Cricket has been the binding spirit for a fractious India; it has been opium and adrenalin, valium and vitamin. It has been social mobility, and it has been tolerance and secularism. The story of Indian cricket is the story of a society, a tapestry woven as a permanent work in progress by a nation in search of a definition. This book is an attempt to tell that story, through pictures, many of which have not been seen in public before. The story of the highs and lows of Indian cricket, with all its oddities and eccentricities - how we reinvented a game and found ourselves reflected in it. A mine of information for sports buffs, connoisseurs and academicians alike, the book is a frame-by-frame unfolding of an institution whose history is a fascinating tale of passion, drama, intrigue, scandal, agony and excitement spread over a century. All the brightest stars of Indian cricket can be found here, from Ranji and C.K. Nayudu to Vijay Merchant and Sunil Gavaskar, and from Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar to Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Every major milestone along the journey is covered, from reducing England to 19-3 in India's very first Test at Lord's in 1932 to the famous victories against the West Indies and England in 1971; and from winning the 1983 World Cup to India's performance in 2006 against Pakistan, England and the West Indies.