This review was written two days after India's inglorious defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe at Leicester in World Cup '99. As of now, India may well be out of the second stage of the tournament. No doubt, every cricket-loving Indian has nothing but foul sentiments about the bunch of cricketers currently representing their country in England.
Reading The Best In The World, India's Ten Greatest World Cup Matches at this juncture, therefore, was some sort of a relief -- an escape into Indian cricket's glorious past. The book dwells on 10 World Cup one-day cricket matches played by India between 1983 and 1996, all of which were won by India barring two. It is not a difficult exercise, as India's performance in the World Cup has been quite ordinary, barring the summer of 1983. Not without reason, therefore, the book covers as many as four matches from the 1983 World Cup, two from those played in 1987, only one from the 1992 World Cup (where India exited at the end of the first stage of the tournament) and three from those played in the 1996 World Cup.
The conceptualisation of the book is unique. Tom Alter (an accomplished actor) and Ayaz Memon (one of the finest cricket writers produced by India) have written in turns. All the matches are described by Alter, followed by Memon's expert comments. Alter does not have any pretence about being a great cricket expert. His is a simple, perceptive and impressionistic account of the matches more as a cricket fan than as an expert. <