Monday, March 26, 2007
A must read book
I've just taken delivery of, and begun reading a new book.
It is A corner of a foreign field 'The Indian History of a British Sport' by Ramachandra Guha (ISBN 0 330 49117 2) and is widely acclaimed as one of the three greatest books ever written about cricket. As such, despite the fact that I am so far only part of the way through the Preface I urge anyone with an interest in the greatest of all games to obtain a copy and read it.
Here's a quote from the Preface to whet the appetite:
"The Bombay batsman Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps the best-known Indian, as well as one of the richest. There are pamphlets and books about him in his native Marathi, and in Hindi and Tamil too. When Tendulkar is batting against the Pakistani swing-bowler Wasim Akram, the television audience exceeds the entire population of Europe."
I look forward to enjoying this book over the next few weeks, as the 2007 ICC World Cup is played out without either India or Pakistan in the last eight. Can you begin to imagine what it means to the Bangladeshi fans that their team is playing in the super 8's, and both India and Pakistan are on the plane heading home?
It's a funny old game...
