A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport [Paperback]

Ramachandra Guha (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2003

C. K. Nayudu and Sachin Tendulkar naturally figure in this captivating history of cricket in India, but so too—in arresting and unexpected ways—do Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Indian careers of those great English cricketers Lord Harris and D. R. Jardine provide a window into the operations of Empire, while the extraordinary life of India's first great slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, introduces the still-unfinished struggle against caste discrimination. Later chapters explore the competition between Hindu and Muslim cricketers in colonial India and the extraordinary passions now provoked when India plays Pakistan. An important, pioneering work, this is also a beautifully-written meditation on the ramifications of sport in society at large, and on how sport can influence both social and political history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ramachandra Guha is the author of several books, including How Much Should a Person Consume, India After Gandhi, and Savaging the Civilized.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan UK (May 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330491172
• ISBN-13: 978-0330491174
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Other Team Sports > Cricket

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Indian cricket pre-Test History, September 13, 2003

By 

"ubersportingpundit" (Athelstone, South Australia Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Hardcover)

Why did the Indian sub-continent take to cricket so completely? And why can't India have a proper sporting relationship with Pakistan? Why are the fans so passionate, and why is Sachin Tendulkar revered as a God?

No Australian can really answer these questions, so I was glad to see Ramachandra Guha's "A Corner of a Foreign Field" which is an attempt to answer some of these questions.

For such a cricket mad nation, India has been surprisingly lax about chronicalling it's cricket history, but Guha has done what digging he can.

The cover of my copy is swathed in praise; the Literary Review calls it "wonderful". From a literary point of view, I cannot own that it is that good; the prose occasionally plays out a few maiden overs and it struggles to maintain a proper length.

From a historical point of view, though, it is excellent, and explains a great deal not just about how the game started in the subcontinent, but also it explains the attitudes of the people to the game. And, it might be said, about other things. The communal hatreds of India and Pakistan make a lot more sense when you understand the Pentagular tournament that was the focus of Indian cricket until India became a serious Test nation.

As an Australian, I got a mild sense of embarrassment reading this tome. It is clear that India's board and cricketing society have faithfully copied everything crass, commercial and nationalistic in the Australian game, and applied it to the subcontinent. Australians, cynical as we are, have managed to cope with this; Indians have not, and the result is displays like the 1996 World Cup semi-final.

This book is not exactly the Indian version of `Beyond a boundary' but it is well worth a read, especially for the "Anglo" reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on Indian cricket, April 20, 2004

By 

A. Rajamani (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Hardcover)

The title is deservingly flattering but then there are only a handful of Indian books on Indian cricket (Guha's own "Wickets in the East" is the 5 star rare-to-find masterpiece.) The book begins with a meticulous and stirring history & commentary on early Indian cricket. The focus gradually shifts onto the Quadrangular-Pentangular 'communal cricket' in Bombay from 1900s to the 1940s until MK Gandhi wisely raised his walking stick and put a stop to it. The high point of this book is Guha's reliving the cricketing struggles and exploits of the chamar (a still oppressed Indian caste) Palwankar brothers. After this Dr. Guha moves onto more contemporary stories in Indian cricket. This falls flat because in my opinion, it is too early to talk about the social ramifications of Indian cricket. (FYI, the Indian cricket is usually comforabally upper caste/class, despite the barriers broken by the Palwankar brothers many years ago.) But the story of early Indian cricket, the Palwankar brothers, and the description of early Indo-Pak cricket are more than enough to make this book a worthy read. Guha's writing talent lies in being able to provide a passionate commentary to this history while making sure one does not intrude on the other.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent book on the early social history of Indian cricket, November 13, 2004

By 

A. Datta - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Paperback)

Ram Guha is both an environmental historian and an avid cricket enthusiast. He dons the latter avatar here to write a fantastic history of Indian cricket. This is not just a history of cricket, but a history of Bombay in the late 19th-early 20th centuries as well, along with commentary on the battle fought by the Untouchables, and a biography of the Baloo brothers, all rolled into one. He also introduces what he calls the 'Empire of Cricket' hypothesis- that the English were encouraged that the Indians took to cricket, because they thought it was some sort of justification for their imperial mission.

One of the things I like about this book is that there aren't long winded descriptions of cricket matches. He picks out key matches, key innings, and doesn't go into laborious descriptions of the perfect square cut. By keeping it pithy he makes it way more exciting.

My only grouse is that I wish occasionally he'd be a historian more than a cricket writer. There is a lot of material there that is ripe for analysis, but I feel he deliberately subdues the historian in him to be accessible to the lay reader. I wish he'd looked at issues like land and space in Bombay a little more closely, using cricket as the nucleus.