Sep 2, 2006
Review: You Must Like Cricket? Memoirs of an Indian Cricket Fan by Soumya Bhattacharya (Yellow Jersey Press). [An edited version of this review appeared in The Guardian, 2 September] Like Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, Soumya Bhattacharya’s memoir is an intimate, often wry account of “thirty years of following a team. Three decades of highs and… Read more
Jul 17, 2006
Comment is free, The Guardian, July 17 Martin Crowe’s recent lecture at Lord’s – the sixth annual Cowdrey lecture – was formally dedicated to the Spirit of Cricket. As I’m always wary when this term is invoked, I wasn’t entirely shocked to find Crowe – former New Zealand captain, now a Rupert Murdoch employee –… Read more
Jul 4, 2006
Comment is Free, The Guardian, 4 July Now that England are out and the World Cup is nearing its climax, perhaps there’ll be a re-focusing on what is supposed to be the country’s traditional summer pastime. In recent weeks the media has been so preoccupied with the football that when the cricket season’s prime attraction,… Read more
Mar 12, 2006
Published in Following On: Cricket and National Identity in the Postcolonial Age, edited by Stephen Wagg (Routledge, 2005) Long before it was a global game, cricket was an imperial game. At least, that was how it was seen by the rulers of the British empire, in Whitehall and at Lord’s. Their subjects sometimes saw it differently,… Read more
Mar 11, 2006
The Guardian, 11 March Review of The Match by Romesh Gunesekera (Bloomsbury) Two cricket matches bookend Romesh Gunesekera’s new novel. The first is a local, one-off, comically amateur challenge between expats in the Philippines in 1970. The second is an all-star televised clash at the Oval in 2002. Despite cricket’s longevity and aura of aestheticism,… Read more
Feb 1, 2006
Cricinfo Magazine, February 2006 It’s always a sweet sight. The swing of the bat, the ball scuttling across the earth or arching through the air, human figures moving purposefully, gracefully, at speed, across a vast green lawn. No cricket fan could resist it, even if it’s baseball. The two great modern stick-and-ball games are not… Read more
