50 summers have passed since C.L.R. James asked, ‘What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’ James’s belief, that this quaint game reveals profound truths of those who play and love it, is alive and well: evident in The Great Tamasha by James Astill, which describes India, and Cricket Cauldron by Shaharyar M. Khan, which fumigates Pakistan.
Astill, who is a Raja at The Economist, tells the story of India’s turbulent rise with reference to the history of cricket in India, where the sport is a form of entertainment – or tamasha, as numerous sub-continental languages have it.
Astill is a self-confessed ‘cricket tragic’ but he is good company nonetheless, with an eye for an anecdote and an ear for a joke. He is a daring story-teller: the book changes course with the regularity of the Brahmaputra, turning between politics, culture, crime, economics, celebrity and sport.
Astill can please those who are enthralled by the derring-do of India’s cricketing heroes, and he can grip those with an interest in the growth of Indian TV ownership.
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