'A wonderful memoir . . . richly insightful, and deeply moving' - Ramachandra Guha Eminent journalist Pradeep Magazine's memoir is a story of lived, real experiences, of joy, sorrow, fear, loss and hope, and about how an uprooted identity shapes one's attitude towards society and the nation. From the Kashmir of the 1950s to terror-stricken Punjab, from the Mandir-Masjid divide and the impact of Mandal politics to the tragic consequences of the Kashmir situation-Magazine paints a fascinating portrait of modern India. At the core of the book are accounts of some of the most epochal events in India's cricketing history, woven around personal encounters with several well-known cricketers. The author lays bare the vicious machinations that are a staple diet of sports governance and reveals hitherto unknown facts about the frictions and ego clashes that are inevitable in a game that dominates India's sporting discourse. Whether it is cricket that you're keen on, or India's troubled history, Not Just Cricket is a must-read.

In C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James--the "black Plato," (as coined by the London Times)--shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony (by one of the founding fathers of African nationalism), part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, Beyond a Boundary raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics, and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later (Pantheon, 1983), this second American edition brings back into print this prophetic statement on race and sport in society.

A Revealing, In-Depth Account Of The Nexus Between The World S Top Cricketers And Bookmakers. On 17 March 2007, The Much-Fancied Pakistan Team Crashed Out Of The Cricket World Cup After A Surprise Defeat To Minnows Ireland. Even As Disappointed Fans Reacted With Anger And Dismay, Rumour Mills Began Working Overtime, Insinuating The Involvement Of Bookmakers In The Unexpected Result, And Hinting At Match-Fixing. Speculation Reached A Fever Pitch When, The Day After, Pakistan Coach Bob Woolmer Was Found Murdered In His Hotel Room. Sources Alleged That The Hand Of The Subcontinental Betting Mafia Was Behind The Attack On Woolmer, And Pointed To The Billions Of Dollars That May Be At Stake When A Match Is Thrown . This Recent Episode Is Only The Latest In A String Of Incidents Involving The World S Top Cricketers. In Recent Years, The Indian Subcontinent Has Emerged As Perhaps The Most Lucrative Arena In Which World Cricket Is Played, Not Least Because Of The Enormous Sums Wagered On The Outcome Of Every Match. Fired By A Chance Encounter With A Bookie In The Caribbean, Top Indian Cricket Writer Pradeep Magazine Set Himself The Task Of Finding Out Exactly How The Shadowy World Of Betting And Match-Fixing Works. He Interviewed Players, Journalists, Cricketing Officials, And Even Posed As An Informer For A Bookmaker For A While. What Emerged In The Course Of His Inquiry Was A Story Of Divided Loyalties And Carefully Camouflaged Half-Truths, Of Players Who Actively Participated In Match-Fixing And Others Who Colluded With Them. He Found That The Money Trail Snakes Its Way Into Every Part Of The Game In The Subcontinent, And Thence To The World. This New And Revised Edition Of This Best-Selling Book Brings The Shocking Story Of Betting Scams And Match-Fixing In International Cricket Up To The Present, And Indicates How Strong The Bookie Cricketer Ties May Be Even Today.

Winner of the WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR award and the TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR, this book is a celebration of the elegance and timeless beauty of cricket—its greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to today’s stars, along with its idyllic and hallowed grounds. Cricket has been played for over three hundred years and in some ways remains largely unchanged. It is this timelessness, and the style and spirit in which the game is conducted, which is celebrated in This Is Cricket. The book brings together such idyllic settings as Sir Paul Getty's Ground in Buckinghamshire, U.K., surrounded by rolling countryside, with the Otago cricket ground in New Zealand set against a backdrop of mountains, as well as the sport's most hallowed pitches, including Lord's (opened by Thomas Lord in 1814) and Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted the first-ever International "Test" match in 1877. Readers will venture on a journey to the Caribbean, where the fast bowling attack of the West Indies reigned in the 1970s, and to India, where cricket soared to new heights in the 1980s. From Shane Warne's hat-trick at the MCG in 1994 to Ben Stokes's heroics at Lord's and Headingley in 2019, This Is Cricket captures many of the game's most extraordinary events and players. The striking images of on-field action as well as candid dressing-room moments, some published here for the first time, are taken by some of the most respected photographers in sport. Featuring bucolic village greens, charming pavilions, endearing team portraits, extraordinary catches, devastating bowling, heroic batting, stylish sweaters, and silly fancy dress, this book illustrates why cricket is the second most popular sport in the world and why it is truly loved by so many.

Souci Alexander, a poor young woman from the mountainous interior of Jamaica, agrees to a platonic marriage to Lewis Montrose, a politician who needs her to further his career and his chances at winning the election. Souci initially enjoys her new luxurious lifestyle, but her feelings change from exhilaration to anxiety when just as she develops real feelings for her husband, she discovers his dark and violent past--one he never intended to be revealed.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

This is a novel containing two parallel stories: a fable about Ortho the Cricket's quest to sing a World Song which transcends the traditional Cricket Song and it is also a story about Dan Lesniak's quest for artistic expression that transcends traditional painting techniques. Ortho and Dan travel different paths to same destination. Both meet obstacles on the way that hinder their quests and threaten to prevent them from achieving their life-long pursuits.

The Cricket Choir By: Patricia Signorelli Our roles in life are temporary. Lydia knows this but was not ready to give up her in-touch parenting role when the time comes. This role has defined her for two decades. She loses her footing when her marriage also ends. Lydia journals her dilemma with candor and is surprised when fate steps in. A new role appears for her, adjusting her reality. She is needed again, but in a healthy way. Lydia’s approach to her new role is open—but she does not see the positivity coming when she opens up to her new surroundings and even learns to appreciate the song of the crickets. Love becomes new again. So much of her new life draws upon her past but she journals how she views it fully now.

This ambitious new study argues that not only is the story of cricket inescapably entwined with that of capitalism, but that the game provides a unique lens with which to understand the history, development, exigencies and contradictions of capitalist political economy. From the aristocratic capture of the artisan’s game to the commodified entertainment of private T20 leagues, the story of cricket has been told against the background of capitalism. Cricket was the gentlemanly vanguard of the English-led British empire which forged the first iteration of international capitalism that was reliant upon a political and commercial partnership between rulers and the ruled, and today it speaks to the productive tension between the emergence of the Asian century and the power of American cultural imperialism. Reading capitalism as a cultural, economic and political system, this book explores the relationship between cricket and capitalism, and illuminates many of the most important themes in contemporary sport studies, such as class, race, gender, globalisation, nationalism, neoliberalism, commodification and migration. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport history, the sociology of sport, global political economy, political theory or cultural studies.

No object encapsulates the subtle, mysterious richness of cricket as much as its most famous character, the cricket ball: the swinging, bouncing, spinning heart of the glorious game. Gary Cox tells us the life story of the ball in its many guises: new ball, old ball, live ball, dead ball, no-ball, lost ball, swing ball and dot ball. He untangles the complexities of spin bowling (with a little help from Shane Warne), the tricks and cheats involved in ball tampering (including a look at the 2018 Australian scandal) and explores the multi-coloured future of a rapidly changing game. A kaleidoscopic look at the ball through the lenses of everything from philosophy and science to history, politics and biography and the myriad facts and figures of the vast cricket universe, Cox brings you a brimming biography of this legendary leathern orb and the heroes, fools and villains it has created along the way.