Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond - Hardcover

Majumdar, Boria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9386797186 ISBN 13: 9789386797186

Publisher: S&S India, 2018

Synopsis

From one of India’s best-known sports journalists, a fascinating exploration of cricket—India’s most popular sport—packed with lively anecdotes and never-before-seen photographs.

Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians takes you behind the scenes of India’s most popular sport—going from early tours in 1886 to the more contemporary IPL, offering a complete understanding of the evolution of the game both on and off the field. Featuring material that has never-been-released, this book sheds new light on cases like Monkeygate, the suspension of Lalit Modi, match-fixing scandals, and more.

Weaving together personal interviews, photographs, and letters, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians unflinchingly asks the questions that need answering, among them: Has internal conflict impacted the on- field performance of the Indian cricket team? Did some icons fail the country and the sport by trying to conceal important facts during the spot-fixing investigation? And does it matter to the ordinary fan who heads the BCCI as long as there is transparency and accountability in the system?

Chronicling the history of cricket throughout colonial and post-colonial Indian life, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians offers fascinating insight into those who patronize, promote, play, and watch the sport, as well as the entire nation now considered the global hub of the world of cricket.

About this title

About the Author:

Boria Majumdar, a Rhodes scholar, is recognized as one of India’s most influential commentators. Having covered international sport between 2000 and 2017, he is currently Consulting Editor, Sport, India Today Group and Senior Research Fellow, University of Central Lancashire. He was formerly Sports Expert at Times Now and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Chicago and Toronto. Majumdar has written more than 1,000 columns on sports over the last fifteen years, and has authored or co-authored multiple books, among them Olympics: The India Story (with Nalin Mehta) and Playing It My Way—Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography.

Review:

'A big story told with swaggering confidence from an Indian viewpoint, pitted with new detail...as well as demonstrating how MS Dhoni, the IPL and lately Virat Kohli embody a nation shrugging off the last of a deferential, colonial past and taking its place at the head of a new order.' Author: Jon Hotten Source: Wisden Cricket Monthly

About this edition

• Publisher: S&S India
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 9386797186
• ISBN 13: 9789386797186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 450