A Collection Of Fifty Informative And Anecdotal Articles By Cricketers As Well As Leading Writers On Cricket, Indian Cricket: Then And Now Is A Book That Cricket Aficionados Of All Ages Will Enjoy.

David Frith's Revised And Updated Autobiography, 25 Years On From The Acclaimed 1997 Story Of His Decades At The Heart Of Cricket: A Story Of Wartime, Two-way Emigration, Playing, Watching And Writing About Cricket Past And Present: The Controversies, The Sweeping Research, The Friends (and Enemies), The Great Occasions, And Closeness To The Arlotts And Bradmans And Hordes Of Others. This Is Cricket From The Central Hub And A Human Story Like No Other.it Is Terrific . . . A Love Story, A Search For Cultural Identity . . . Meditation On How Cricket Can Be So Informative Of One's Sensibilities . . . Frith's Mastery Of His Subject Is Astounding And Sometimes Hilarious . . . This Is Not A Comfortable 'thanks For The Memories' Book, But Frith's Has Not Been A Comfortable Life. That Is The Price One Pays For Fearless Honesty And Self-knowledge. Gideon Haigh

It's the history and the literature that has made cricket the greatest of all games. These are some interesting stories about some interesting cricket personalities by an accidental writer.

Billy Midwinter was the first man to play professional cricket in both the geographical hemispheres. For six English summers he turned out for WG Grace’s Gloucestershire. And then he would sail for Australia to represent Victoria in the antipodean cricket seasons. This invariably meant long, often tedious, sea voyages.\nHe played Tests for Australia against England, then for England against Australia, and then once again for Australia against England. No other Test cricketer has changed sides so often. At the same time, his personal life was plagued with tragedy that saw him lose loved ones, and ended with a painful death in a mental asylum. With time, Midwinter’s name has gradually faded from public memory. With this volume Pradip Dhole brings him back to life. I commend this work to all those with an interest in the origins of international cricket - Charles Davis.

The latest groundbreaking tome from Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek.From the author:“For the last two years, I’ve interviewed more than 200 world-class performers for my podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super celebs (Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, surfing, etc.) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists. For most of my guests, it’s the first time they’ve agreed to a two-to-three-hour interview. This unusual depth has helped make The Tim Ferriss Show the first business/interview podcast to pass 100 million downloads.“This book contains the distilled tools, tactics, and ‘inside baseball’ you won’t find anywhere else. It also includes new tips from past guests, and life lessons from new ‘guests’ you haven’t met.“What makes the show different is a relentless focus on actionable details. This is reflected in the questions. For example: What do these people do in the first sixty minutes of each morning? What do their workout routines look like, and why? What books have they gifted most to other people? What are the biggest wastes of time for novices in their field? What supplements do they take on a daily basis?“I don’t view myself as an interviewer. I view myself as an experimenter. If I can’t test something and replicate results in the messy reality of everyday life, I’m not interested.“Everything within these pages has been vetted, explored, and applied to my own life in some fashion. I’ve used dozens of the tactics and philosophies in high-stakes negotiations, high-risk environments, or large business dealings. The lessons have made me millions of dollars and saved me years of wasted effort and frustration.“I created this book, my ultimate notebook of high-leverage tools, for myself. It’s changed my life, and I hope the same for you.”

When Ramachandra Guha began following the game in the early 1960s, India was utterly marginal to the world of cricket: the country still hadn't won a Test match overseas; by the time he joined the Board of Control for Cricket in India, fifty years later, India had become world cricket's sole superpower. The Commonwealth of Cricket is a first-person account of this astonishing transformation. The book traces the entire arc of cricket in India, across all levels at which the game is played: school, college, club, state, country. It presents vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons, and international stars. Cast as a work of literature, The Commonwealth of Cricket is keenly informed by the author's scholarly training, the stories and sketches narrated against a wider canvas of social and historical change. The book blends memoir, anecdote, reportage and political critique, providing a rich, insightful and rivetingly readable account of this greatest of games as played in the country that has most energetically made this sport its own.

From being Champion of Champions to one of the world's top cricket commentators to Team India's head coach, Ravi Shastri has an incomparable perspective when it comes to the game of cricket. In Stargazing: The Players in My Life, the legendary all-rounder looks back at the extraordinary talent he has encountered over the years. Who is the former Indian captain who didn't do full justice to his talent? Or that bruising bowler who went on to become a best friend? What was the most important lesson the legendary Clive Llyod taught him? How does Shastri set aside his personal bond with Virat Kohli in his role as coach? Full of never-before-revealed anecdotes, Stargazing, co-written with Ayaz Memon and featuring illustrations by Shiva Rao, offers a glimpse into how champions from across the globe have inspired one of the world's greatest ODI players and Team India's most successful Test cricket coach.

"1971 was the year that changed Indian cricket forever. Accustomed to seeing a talented but erratic Indian team go from one defeat to another, a stunned cricketing world watched in astonishment as India first beat the West Indies in a Test series on their home turf, and then emerged victorious over England-in England. Suddenly, the Indian team had become a force to reckon with. Boria Majumdar and Gautam Bhattacharya's book is a thrilling account of the 1971 twin tours, that brings to life the on-field excitement and the backroom drama. Against a canvas that features legends: Pataudi and Wadekar, who captained India to the two sensational series victories abroad; Sardesai, Durani, Viswanath, Engineer, Solkar, Abid Ali; the famed spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan; and a young batsman named Sunil Gavaskar who was making his debut-it is the tale of a young country ready and eager to make an impression on the world stage. Fifty years later, this is a wonderful book to relive those glory days with."

Pakistan is a country beset with politicized instabilities, economic problems, ethnic conflicts, religious fervor and crises of identity. It is also a country in which the game of cricket has become a nationwide obsession. How has that happened? How does a Muslim country, jealous of its independence and determined to forge a Pakistani identity, so passionately embrace the alien gentleman's game imported by the distant and departed former colonial masters? What do we learn of Pakistan from its attitudes and responses to cricket? This book sees Pakistan its history, politics and society, not to mention its fractured relations with India through the prism of cricket. Shaharyar Khan examines how this very Western sport came to embed itself into the psyche of Pakistanis old and young, and how understanding the state of cricket in the region is the key to understanding Pakistan itself. Demonstrating how the turbulence around cricket has much wider political implications, Khan provides an unusual and highly original perspective on Pakistan. This book will fascinate general readers and cricket enthusiasts, at the same time proving essential reading for observers of Pakistan, India and the South Asia region.

Sourav Ganguly is a difficult icon. He is undoubtedly one of India's most successful captains, one who moulded a new team when India was at its lowest ebb, reeling from the betting scandal. There can be no argument about his cricketing genius, right from the time he scored a Test century at Lord's to the time he led India to the 2003 World Cup final. But the world of cricketing fans is divided into those who adore him fiercely and despise him greatly. He could be arrogant on occasion: Ganguly allegedly refused to carry the drinks as a twelfth man. He constantly challenged authority. Greg Chappell discarded him from the team during his stint as coach. Ganguly cared little for convention: remember the bare-chested celebration at an Indian win? Yet, in all the years of his roller-coaster ride through Indian cricket, no one questioned the man's utter devotion to the game or his team. In this account of one of India's greatest cricketers, shot through with intimate details, Saptarshi Sarkar tackles controversies around the legendary cricketer head on. Racy and gripping, Sourav Ganguly: Cricket, Captaincy and Controversy investigates the big events in Dada's interesting career. It probes the symbiotic relationship between the man and the cricketer. What was Ganguly thinking before a match? Why did he demand that the grass be trimmed just before start of play at the Nagpur pitch? What was the Indian dressing room like? What was that Greg Chappell chapter all about? An unflinching biography of a man who never shied away from controversies, this is as much a ready reckoner for Sourav Ganguly fans as it is an examination of a crucial era in Indian cricket.

The definitive history of a cricket team the world loves to watch, but is at a loss to explain The story of Pakistan cricket is dramatic, tortured, heroic and tumultuous. Beginning with nothing after the Partition of 1947 to the jubilation of its victory against England at the Oval in 1954; from earning its Test status and competing with the best to sealing a golden age by winning the World Cup in 1992; from their magic in Sharjah to an era-defining low in the new millennium, Pakistan's cricketing fortunes have never ceased to thrill. This book is the story of those fortunes and how, in the process, the game transformed from an urban, exclusive sport into a glue uniting millions in a vast, disparate country. In its narration, Osman Samiuddin captures the jazba of the men who played for Pakistan, celebrates their headiest moments and many upheavals, and brings to life some of their most famous - and infamous - contests, tours and moments. Ambitious, spirited and often heart breaking, The Unquiet Ones is a comprehensive portrait of not just a Pakistani sport, but a national majboori, a compulsion whose outcome can often surprise and shock, and become the barometer of everyday life in Pakistan, tailing its ups and downs, its moods and character.

Shoaib Akhtar has been one of the most colourful characters in the history of cricket. He is the fastest bowler in the world, who set an official world record by achieving the fastest delivery when he clocked in at 161.3 km/ph (100.2 mph) twice in the same match. Having taken more than 400 wickets in international cricket, he is a phenomenal cricketer too. Tagged as being undisciplined, Akhtar's career has been plagued by injuries, controversies and accusations of poor attitude. Here he tells his side of the story. The early years of deprivation, the relentless self-imposed discipline, the way he played both on the cricket grounds and outside. His is also the inside story of Pakistan cricket, no holds barred: the strange ways of the cricket board, the hierarchies and manipulations and, above all, the magic of the game itself.

The ban of IPL teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in July 2015 has exposed the underbelly of national cricket. It all began with the indictment of Meiyappan and Kundra, and before that the arrest of fast bowler S. Sreesanth accused of spot-fixing. Long before, corruption in international cricket had reared its ugly head with the mysterious deaths of South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer. Veteran journalist Shantanu Guha Ray shows how deeply entwined the nexus of bookies and punters is with those in the corridors of power and the cracks that are now threatening to swallow the 'gentleman's game'.

A brilliant anthology of essays on Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Essays by: Farokh Engineer, Abbas Ali Baig, Bishan Bedi, Mike Brearley, David Woolley, Naseeruddin Shah, Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Chappell, N. Ram, Tony Lewis, Vijay Merchant, M.J. Akbar, Suresh Menon, Ray Robinson, Mudar Patherya, Rajdeep Sardesai, John Woodcock, Rahul Dravid, Robin Marlar, Ted Dexter, Mike Coward, Saba Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan March 1962: The Indian team to West Indies had just lost its captain, Nari Contractor, to a sickening head injury. A strapping young man, playing only his fourth Test, walked out for the toss with Frank Worrell at Bridgetown. At twenty-one, he was not only the youngest member of the team, but also the youngest to captain a Test side. He had returned to playing cricket only months after an accident that left him with vision in only one eye. For the next decade, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, or 'Tiger', was the undisputed 'Nawab' of Indian cricket, captaining in all but six of the forty-six Tests he played, forging a national identity in a team often divided along regional lines, proving a game-changer by raising the standard of fielding and by unleashing a famed quartet of spinners, the likes of which the world had not seen. In Pataudi: Nawab of Cricket, players, writers, editors, actors, friends and opponents reminisce about their association with Tiger. This extraordinary anthology brilliantly put together by Suresh Menon, arguably India's best sports writer and journalist offers a fascinating portrait of a cricketer and a gentleman whose contribution to Indian cricket went beyond the number of Tests he played and the runs he scored.

In this book, the authors, who consider themselves fans and analysts in equal measure, follow the career of the cricketing demigod - his advent, his peak, his fall, and his resurrection. Armed with irrefutable statistical data, which they contextualize and analyse with rigour, the authors seek to end all debate on Tendulkar's status as the greatest cricketer of the modern era.

"In Eye on Cricket, Samir Chopra, a professor of philosophy and a long-time blogger at ESPNcricinfo, offers us a deeply personal take on a game that has entranced him his entire life in the several lands he has called home.He reflects on a childhood centred on cricket, the many obsessions of fandom, the intersection of the personal and the political, expatriate experiences of cricket, historical regrets and remembrances, and cricket writing and media.Nostalgic, passionate and meditative, Eye on Cricket is steeped in cricket history and its cultural significance, and reminds the most devoted spectators of the game that they are not alone. Every emotion they ve experienced is a shared one for the Empire s most famous export, this gentlemanly game of bat and ball, has slowly built the most closely bonded brotherhood in the world. "

Cricket as we know it may soon be no more. Thanks to Twenty20, technology, media, and the sheer financial power of Indian cricket, the gentleman's game is on the brink of radical changes. Nation-based cups might give way to T20 professional leagues; umpires might be replaced by technology; and professional franchises, not national boards, might call the shots. Could cricket go the way of professional football? Will Test cricket survive in an entertainment-driven field? Will television rights deals determine the nature of the game? This upheaval has been accompanied by conflict between the old guard England and Australia and the new boss, India. If the spirit of cricket is to survive these changes, it requires the balancing of economic, political and sporting imperatives. The game must find a way to remain a financially solvent global sport that caters to the changing tastes of its fans and players by creatively using new media and limited-overs cricket. In 'Brave New Pitch', Samir Chopra takes a hard look at cricket's tumultuous present, and considers what could and should lie ahead.

Love Him Or Loathe Him, Ricky Ponting Is One Of The Biggest Names In Cricket, Having Been At The Heart Of So Many Memorable Ashes And Test Encounters Over The Years. Coinciding With The End Of Ponting's Spectacular Career, Ricky's Autobiography Lifts The Lid On The Achievements And Incidents Which Have Defined His Spell In The Game.