Inside view of cricket
Abhijit Chatterjee

Covers Are Off — A Socio-Historical Study of Indian Cricket.
by Rajan Bala. Rupa & Co. Pages 278. Rs 395.

Rajan Bala has been closely associated with Indian cricket for over four decades. All this time he has been reporting the goings-on on cricket fields, both in India and abroad, and has been in contacts with all those who matter in Indian cricket. His observations, therefore, on Indian cricket are generally taken very seriously. And this is fully reflected in the book, which makes interesting reading.

Rajan Bala has, apparently, met many players, officials and other who matter in Indian cricket to make the book as authentic as possible. His closeness to players, both past and present, is reflected in his narration. He has touched upon many controversial incidents and events in Indian cricket.

Ever since Indian attained Test status in 1932, very strong-willed men have had a say in Indian cricket. It is difficult to know what these men had to say in an era when there was neither good newspapers nor good photographers to record the happenings in cricketing venues. But despite this handicap, the author has managed to reflect the essence of Indian cricket over the years gone by.

The author deftly reveals how the game went through various twists and turns and how the players felt in victories, which once were few and far between. He also talks about the background of the players, their education level and the psyche of not only the players but also of the selectors (the mai baap of the players).

But one wishes the author had gone more deeply into the match-fixing scandal which threatened to bring Indian cricket at a standstill some years ago. If there is one person who could have delved deep into the issue it was Rajan Bala, given the fact that he had personal assess to most, nay all, contemporary players.

Writing on the issue of match fixing, Rajan writes: "It was the darkest period in Indian cricket. The truth is, I was not aware of such goings-on because one could not believe for a moment that anyone given the honour of playing for the country could descend to such depths of infamy. The fact is it happened." Surely, a little more investigation was called for on part of the author. After all, the issue has touched, and changes, the lives of so many cricketers.

The author has also not been fair to Punjab's Navjot Sidhu, who left the Indian team the 1996 tour to England when the tour was halfway through. To say that Sidhu was suffering from the fear of failure was to oversimplify the fact. It seems that Rajan Bala did not take the trouble of talking to Sidhu on the issue of his walkout from the Indian team. And Sidhu is just a phone call away.

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