Cricket's internationalist

Kesavan is the ultimate fan's fan. Reading through these essays gives you the feeling that he's the kind of chap with whom you'd be happy to swap cricket stories of an evening. When you disagree, the instinct is to collar him for more argument rather than dismiss his opinions as the ramblings of the amateur maven.

Of course, enthusiasm alone wouldn't have made him worth reading, especially in India, where there is no shortage of self-styled experts. The appeal of Men in White owes much to Kesavan's light touch with the pen as an intuitive understanding of the intricacies of the game.

The latter is remarkable not least because cricket is so exquisitely complex that, unlike, say, soccer or tennis, it is notoriously difficult for a non-player to master its nuances. And Kesavan, by his own admission, boasts a top score of 14 in neighbourhood cricket and a lively distaste for fast bowling.

Yet, whether he's discussing the absurdities of the "15-degree" rule for bowlers, Tendulkar's batting technique or the culture of the game, he writes with the quiet wisdom of a thoughtful fan rather than the stentorian bluster of the ill-informed fanatic.

The book is a collection of essays that appeared over the years in various publications, principally Cricinfo Magazine and The Telegraph of Kolkata, but also in Wisden, The Hindu, MansWorld and Hindustan Times.

Like all reconstituted compilations, some of them are palpably dated. But on the whole they remain read-worthy because he deals with subjects of enduring interest""the Muralitharan "chucking" controversy, the Mike Denness affair or the Aussies' habitual bad behaviour. In a cricket world beleaguered by allegations of match-fixing and with a cricket team that cannot find a coach, this is the kind of book that renews your faith in the sport.

Kesavan is an old-fashioned fan, the sort who cut his teeth on the vicarious pleasures of radio commentary and long days in uncomfortable stadia. He is the kind""a fading breed, surely""who revels in the orchestral majesty of Test cricket""with its possibility of no result, than the rock n'roll thrill of one-day cricket.

Of his first Test series, he writes, "My winter was warmed by twenty-five days of Test cricket that were meant to achieve a cumulative result...but which, despite five successive draws, were absorbing in themselves."

My personal pick among the essays would be "Cricket in my neighbourhood", his description of gully cricket as played in a Delhi government colony. Kesavan is wrong when he says "it wasn't representative of neighbourhood cricket in India or even Delhi". With minor variations, what he describes is the real McCoy everywhere in India, complete with four stumps (three at one end, the fourth at the bowler's end), the one-bat-length crease, and the unctuous friendliness towards the rich boy who owned the kit. Even the rules were""and are""the same (Double-Touch Out, Last Man Batting). It is worth wondering how this popular, ersatz version, which enjoyed no over-arching organisation, could be so homogeneous in the lanes and bylanes of India's cities.

At least two of his essays should be mandatory reading for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Soviet-sounding Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). "Gents on Top: Honorary Officials" demonstrates the absurdities of today's cricket administration. He questions the role of national boards in modern cricket and, like many other thinking fans, recommends the re-organisation of the game on non-national commercial lines like the European soccer tournaments or American baseball leagues.

If there are doubts about attracting fan-following for non-national team, the essay "The Super Test or a Whole New Ball Game", should allay them. As Kesavan writes, "...this is new, this satvik spectatorship, this non-violent, purged of tamasik patriotism and other base feelings".

As Kesavan suggests, making patriotism the basis of a global sporting business is probably an unsustainable model. For the real fan, watching, say, Australia's McGrath and South Africa's Pollock open the bowling for a mixed World XI team can be just as exhilarating. All of us have our favourite World XIs. Why not see them actually out on the pitch?

---

MEN IN WHITE
A BOOK OF CRICKET

Mukul Kesavan
Penguin
Price: Rs 395; Pages: XVII+278