Cricket

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind by Ramachandra Guha, Noida: HarperCollins Publishers, India, 2020; pp 347, `699.

Cricket Country: The Untold History of the First All India Team by Prashant Kidambi, Gurgaon: Penguin Viking, 2019; pp 456, ₹ 599.

In India’s 85-year-long Test history, only four of the 289 male Test cricketers have reportedly been Dalits. While concrete steps have been taken to address a similar under-representation of non-white players in South Africa, Dalit under-representation in Indian cricket has received scant attention. There is a need to understand this as a function of systemic barriers arising from corporate patronage post-independence and the urban stranglehold of the game, instead of attributing it to choice, inherent inability or upper caste “tastes.” The grass-roots development approach of Cricket South Africa can serve as an example to address this anomaly.

In the two decades that Sachin has been scaling new peaks, the game has become an adjunct of the entertainment industry and Mumbai, his home, a very different city.