It’s Anybody’s Toss

One criticism of the book, however, that some readers might have is that most pieces in the selection are reworked from previously published essays. If, for instance, you are a regular reader of Wisden Asia Cricket, you’ve probably gone through a few of these already. These stories about Lala Amarnath, Ranjitsinhji, Vijay Hazare, Anthony De Mello, Pankaj Gupta, Vizzy (HH The Maharajkumar of Vizianagram), the Maharaja of Patiala, et al, who played and ran cricket in the country in its early Test years, may be familiar to some. Even so, a recap is always interesting.

Did you, for starters, know there was an umpire in Maharashtra called Prabhakar Balkrishna Jog, whose refusal to toe the line of M.G. Bhave (the bossman of the time) and persistence with trying to expose Bhave cost him an international career? And Jog, as competent as the others of the time, retired without a Test match to his credit.

Then there’s the story of the banning of the Bombay Pentangular, which we all thought was because of the communal nature of the meet (the ban happened in 1946). Majumdar proves (in one of the best essays in the book) that the Pentangular was banned because the Board of Control wanted the Ranji Trophy to become the pre-eminent tournament within the country. And not because of fears that the Hindu vs Muslim matches could inflame communal feelings. (It didn’t. Cricket doesn’t.)

There are so many other stories. Vinoo Mankad’s run-ins with the powers that be; Lala Amarnath’s series of problems with everyone concerned (De Mello chief among them); the problems over the naming of the Ranji Trophy (another very interesting piece); Ranji’s own misdemeanours in annexing the Jamnagar throne, which rightfully belonged to someone else.

Petty as well as high-level politics, treachery, betrayal, corruption, money laundering, ego trips and parochialism. If you thought cricket was a gentleman’s game, Furore will rid you of any such notions for good.

It does more than that actually. The history of cricket in India — as writers like Ramachandra Guha and Majumdar himself show — provides a viable narrative in which to situate social history and sociological investigation. In tracking the way in which the game has over the decades been consumed and analysed, Furore provides a context for current cricket mania. It rescues cricket from simple, and simplistic, renditions of breathless run chases.