On The Shelf

Making sense of his cricketing credo, the rules that guide his batting, perhaps involves taking stock of his personal journey. Lokpally harnesses a variety of sources to profile the Sultan of Multan.

THE GENTLE EXECUTIONER
By Partab Ramchand
Konark
Price: Rs 250

India’s reliance on spin is always deemed to be fading; but just as it happened at Chennai this month, along comes a slow bowler (this time, for the nth time, the man being Anil Kumble) to take full charge of the bowling challenge. Ramchand traces the history of Indian cricket through its spinners, from Baloo Palwankar in the Pentagular years to Harbhajan Singh in the great revival of 2001, from the Quartet of the seventies to the renaissance of legspin in the nineties.

AN UMPIRE REMEMBERS
By Piloo Reporter
Rupa & Co
Price: Rs 295

Through it all, think of the poor umpires. They are singled out for attention only when they make a mistake. For the rest, they must toil away under the blistering sun, keeping score, calling no-balls, deciding in a split-second on leg-before appeals, and making the men in flannel behave. Reporter, one of the country’s most famous umpires, tells his story of cricket with rare stump vision.