A perfectionist's imperfect mind

Book review of 'Imperfect'

Imperfect

Sanjay Manjrekar

Harper Sport

207 pages; Rs 699

This is not your usual sports book. This is a coming-of-age story. Everyone loves those: From Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations to Amitav Ghosh’ The Shadow Lines to Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August to Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. This one, Imperfect, has the added element of pathos.

The current success of Sanjay Manjrekar as a cricket commentator is tinged with forlorn yearning. Here is a man who is just doing a job, without any of the passion he felt when he played the game. “Most importantly, though, commentary isn’t as dear to me as playing