Cricket has it all, doesn't it? Vedam Jaishankar a senior sports scribe with over three decades of experience in covering sports for major dailies like Indian Express, Times of India, Deccan Herald among others, compiles a pretty comprehensive list of all the controversies and also peppers the dramatic narrative with some feel-good moments with stories of courage and conviction. Interestingly Vedam is a man of many interests and that is most fascinating as his interests cover history, golf, heritage, travel and current affairs. He teaches journalism in the National School of Journalism and is a sought-after speaker in corporate circles. This is his third book after 'Rahul Dravid - A Biography' and 'Casting a Spell - A Story of Karnataka Cricket' -both fascinating books I hear.
Vedam begins at the very beginning with the mother of all controversies - the Bodyline series. England, desperate to counter Aussie dominance adopted a bodyline tactic, targeting player's bodies instead of the wickets and drew much flak for it. Then there is an interesting story of about a team that kidnapped an umpire for a lark and poured some drink on his head, Tony Greig's sneaky run out of Kallicharran, Roy Gilchrist being sent home by Gerry Alexander, the furore over the dropping of Bishen Bedi, the bloody tests against the Windies, India conceding an ODI to unsportsmanlike play by Pakistan supported by its umpires, Greg Chappell's underarm tactic, ball doctoring by Paki players, Lever's vaseline incident, Gavaskar's near-walkout in Sydney, Packer series, the Raman Lamba and Rashid Patel incident and so on. Most cricket fans would have a fair idea about these controversies but Vedam manages too surprise you with some details we did not know which shows the amount of research he has put into it.
Then we take a break from controversy and step into courage. Most are stories of cricketers who rose above physical injury or disability - Chandrasekhar who overcame polio, Pataudi who played with one good eye, McCosker batting with a jaw broken in two places, Marshall bowling and batting with one hand and winning the test, Sachin batting with a bloodied face, Kumble bowling with a fractured jaw, Kirsten batting with a broken face and Yuvraj winning the world cup while fighting cancer. Superb stories. On conviction we have Vishwanath recalling Taylor who had been given out which cost the Test, Dravid's declaration when Sachin was on 193, Bell's run out and subsequent calling back by MSD, Kohli and Dean Elgar's let off.
In controversy part II - we get into the murkier areas of off-field politics. Bindra Dalmiya and how they captured BCCI, Sidhu's return home from England due to a misunderstanding, Darrell Hair calling Muralitharan for chucking, Cronje's match-fixing, Ganguly-Greg Chappel spat, Monkeygate, Slapgate and sex and the Indian cricketer which comes at the end. Hopefully, there will be a full book written on it sometime.
The book is very well-researched, presented and is easy to read. Vedam takes great pains to quote all parties concerned and also gives notes at the end of each chapter to give some direction to what was done and what was omitted. The Greg Chappell and Ganguly spat was covered extensively and Vedam does seem to favour Greg's position a bit which is well substantiated and which I read about for the first time. All other controversies and well covered, analysed and put forth with some fine details we have not heard about before which provide new perspectives. A fine read for cricket lovers - which in this day and age includes pretty much everyone I guess. It has all the drama, human frailty and intrigue one needs in a bestseller.
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