Pundits from Pakistan : Some rants

[The Outsider]

I hate Rahul, nahin apna Rahul nahin, I hate Rahul Bhattacharya for having spent more than a month in a country which denied my visa in '97. Tremendous read and one of the few which could genuinely qualify as a quality work coming out of India(?). Really gets into the tone and the moment of the series without mincing words to criticize those who oppose the cricket in a subtle enough manner so that he gets called for tea from both sides for those crucial coverages - never reveal your cards till the end! Rahul describes cricket in the book as fluidly as it has ever been described before - his recount of Sehwag's triple hundred is worth a read and then a read again. For the Sehwag fans and haters here is an excerpt which I really loved,

To this end, Sehwag's technique is fascinating. His trigger movement is not back and across like some; neither is it the forward step like many others; nor is it a shuffle towards the middle. Rather, he waits at the crease, his rear foot ever ready to withdraw outside leg stump. This is his instinct to create width. If he finds the ball to be anything short of full, he retreats deeper into the crease. This is his instinct to create length. To generate momentum in his upper body, he frequently gets off the ground, sometimes with a scissoring motion of legs. Having set himself up, he lets his marvelous hands take over, slicing, slapping, slashing, swatting, above or in between the fielders in his V. Just like that, a reasonable delivery by every conventional parameter has found itself to the rope

He has a long narrative about Tendulkar and the reaction of the media to Multan. It's quite intriguing and spellbounding! Rahul does get carried away with Dravid's batting and Ganguly's captaincy at times, one of the faults he does admit because of the polarization it generates. There is a wonderful few pages on his interaction with Qadir which are really worth reading. Here is an excerpt :

Spin bowling is about four things. One, line and length. Two, variation. Three, using the crease. Four, using fielders. That is spin bowling.

And just before that is this controversial quote from Qadir, on being asked about the top spinner :

Bakwaas. Koi top spinner nahin. Kaun sa top spinner? What is definition of top spin? Janaab, if top spin means that the ball will jump up high by your command, then I think eleven top spinners would be enough for any batting line up. There is no top spinner ball, samajh gaye? Only those who are less educated in cricket, when they have to keep speaking while giving commentary, only they say things like "that was a great top spinner"

Some radical views and ideas there. Wonderful book - the last chapter was a put down though.

[umpire]

you forgot to mention his conversation with Aaqib Javed and views on reverse swing and fast bowling. I thought that was radical.

[Mr. Wicket]

Nice writeup prof, glad you enjoyed the book. I particularly loved both the interviews with Qadir and Aaqib - really entertaining interviews/perspectives, while really showing the characters of both men very clearly. There's one quote from Qadir though that I found quite brilliant on legspinners:

And you know who is leg-spinner? If a person is bowling from dawn to dusk, when he goes home he should still have something left in the bag. He is leg-spinner. If there is nothing left, he is not leg-spinner.

It is a fantastic book (and IMO a must-read for any fan) - really refreshing enthusiasm without any sense of cynicism/jadedness ever coming in, or any attempt to knock anybody. Even the jibes taken at a few characters are done very light-heartedly and gently. (BTW, if you like this style of tour diary, I'll be happy to lend you a couple of the older ones I have by Jack Fingleton - as I've said before I consider him one of the very best writers on the game, and some of his tour diaries (particularly Brightly Fades the Don), on the 48 Ashes, are just fantastic pieces of cricket literature)

[Gambit]

It's a terrific read. I liked how he described Actor and his appeal. And of course, the eunuchs thinking of Sami as one of their own. :cantstop:

[Cricketics]

Gambit or shewetabh or someone can u suggest me a website to buy this book????

[Gambit]

You can get it from Amazon or just win the Superselector :P

[Cricketics]

at one time i was coming 2nd on super selector.. could have easily won. but i wasn't home and didn't have internet acess 2 days straight, and thats when i went from 2nd to 23. i stopped making changes since then. anywayz, i will get it from amazon soon. thanks for the response p.s - good write up shwetabh.. thanks

[Bumper]

Good job Shwetabh. With a bit more writeup, we can turn this into an article, if you would like.

[The Outsider]

Will try to expand on it over the next few days if I get time and make it more coherent. Tics - not sure where you will get it. Try the usual amazon/ebay/froogle gig.