The Great Tamasha - James Astill

It's a 2013 book but it's title was still intriguing enough as was the byline - 'Cricket, Corruption and the Turbulent Rise of Modern India'. James Astill, an award winning journalist, was the political editor of The Economist and was stationed in Delhi for a few years which he used we'll to write this book. Vinod picked it up for me (and it picked itself as I browsed through a few books before I left for my train journey).

Astill begins the story right at the beginning when cricket in India started thanks to the English. The years when the English educated princes played and ruled, the Pentangulars where teams played as Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, English teams, the incorporation of the Ranji Trophy, India being inducted as a Test playing nation (with some of the princes wanting to play and lead), partition and a free India and so on. Though there was not much patronage from the state, the game caught the fancy of the population and grew, mostly in the richer sections of the society and as Astill makes a point, the upper classes mainly. Interestingly though, the Palwankar brothers who were Dalits, actually played for India, the Hindus, and the eldest Palwankar actually led the Hindu team to victory, leading men liked CK Nayudu, who scored a hundred and won the game against the British. After Independence though, Dalit representation has been low and though I am unsure of the numbers Astill quoted (he named only Dodda Ganesh), fact is that it may look improbable to have a Dalit lead many teams in India.

There's much history of Ranjitsinhji and how he accessed the throne of Jamnagar and his great skill at the game. Interestingly we also see how the BCCI has been operated by the powers that be, how state Associations (he chooses Saurashtra as the case in point where Mr Niranjan Shah rules and his son led the state side for a long time). How power has no accountability in sports in the Indian context. He meets Sharad Pawar (the only politician he noted who said Thank you to the person who got chai) and understands how power works at the BCCI and at ICC. He takes us through the transition from Doordarshan trying to control the telecast rights and free market forces coming in which brought big bucks to Indian cricket. He covers the deals with Worldtel, the rise of Sachin etc. We also meet a few bookies in Bombay who talk about how games are fixed and how best go into crores.

And when the IPL began in 2008, he details the story of how Lalit Modi pitched the idea in 1995 to the board which was brushed off, how then Subhash Chandra of Zee TV launched his ICL unsuccessfully, how Lalit Modi first got into Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and then into Rajasthan and as Vice President of BCCI, pitched and launched the IPL in 2008. And then the way the league took off, the corruption and power broking, Modi's downfall and removal as IPL Commissioner, induction of teams such a Pune and Kerala and then their removal. The India Pakistan story is covered in depth as well as are the events surrounding it - the wars, the terrorist acts and so on.

Astill ends the book with Sachin's last Test and I am not sure why. What I did like was how he tried to connect with cricketers who have no way to aspire for a better life, the ones in Dharavi, in the fields of UP (he talks of Kamran Khan the Rajasthan Royals hero in the first season who went back to working in the fields - why didn't he meet him), his friends in Dharavi with whom he stays in the slum. That he talks to Priety Zinta, Amir Khan, Harsha Bhogle, Pujaras father, Mallya, Warne and a host of others is to be expected anyways. 

Lots of interesting stories, very interesting research, interviews, insights, connections. One gets the impression that he's definitely not happy with most things in India or Indian cricket, and he makes no bones about mentioning who runs it and why, the money that goes into it. Very few pass his approval - his friend Shashi from Dharavi gets a clean chit while most others are viewed with some suspicion. But that's his experience as he wonders at how Indians put cricketers on a pedestal whereas even in Pakistan someone like Shahid Afridi is treated like an ordinary citizen. He ends with how difficult it was to access Sachin Tendulkar who he does get to meet but does not get an interview on a rainy day in London.

Many interesting insights and research heavy so I had to read it slowly, much too slowly for my comfort. But it's in a good way. I wonder how this book would have been if it covered the years from 2013 to now. Good stuff. Thanks Vinod Bhai for picking it up for me.