Sixer of a Title

Having immersed himself in the game for a lifetime, Ramachandra Guha has the best cricket stories to tell

- Ashok Desai

Ramachandra Guha has written a great many books. The early ones were on the environment, most of the later ones on Gandhi. Half a dozen are about his passion, cricket. This book is a cricket centred autobiography.

Guha grew up in Dehradun, within walking distance of three cricket fields. He went to Doon School and then St Stephen’s College in Delhi, where he played cricket. At 15, he got asthma; that ended his playing days. In his 20s, he concentrated on scholarship; then he began writing. He wrote his multi-volume biography of Gandhi. He watched cricket, met cricketers and talked to other cricket-lovers. That is what his book is about.

The book begins with Guha’s early heroes—the Nawab of Pataudi, Farokh Engineer, Vijay Hazare etc—and then comes to Sachin Tendulkar, “one-stop-shop of batsmanship”. Then Guha crosses 50; the boring patriotism and parochialism of his youth wear off, and he begins to appreciate good play irrespective of the player’s nationality.

He has some superb stories. For instance, during a match in Bombay in 1966, Gary Sobers asked his partner Clive Lloyd to hurry up and start hitting. They scored a hundred in 75 minutes and won the match. When Lloyd thanked him for the advice, Sobers said it had nothing to do with the match: he had to rush to Mahalakshmi race course because he had good tips for the races at 4 and 4:30 pm. Nazar Mohammad, writes Guha, a cautious batsman, had to end his career in the 1950s because he jumped out of a window when he was with Noor Jehan, the actress, and her husband returned without notice.