- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Picador; 4 edition (2 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330491172
- ISBN-13: 978-0330491174
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
203,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Cricket > International > India & Pakistan
- #69 in Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Indian Subcontinent
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A book that seamlessly interweaves biography with history, the lives of cricketers with wider processes of social change.
Book Description
C. K. Nayudu and Sachin Tendulkar naturally figure in this book, 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. The extraordinary life of India's first great slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, introduces the reader to 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, essential for anyone interested in cricket and India, A Corner of a Foreign Field is also a beautifully written meditation on the ramifications of sport in society at large, and how sport can influence both social and political history. ' An original, scholarly and highly entertaining work by a writer who combines the skills of biographer, anthropologist, cricket journalist and political historian' David Gilmour, Spectator 'A fascinating social study, absorbingly told and with much charm' Independent 'Guha efortlessly blends political and social history with a chronology of the game and those who play it in a country, as he puts it, "where all things are turned upside down"' Time Out
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've never bothered much with cricket books, aside from stats compilations, compendia of cricket journalism, and a few snatches of Brian Close's autobiography in the school library over 20 years ago when I should have been reading Jane Austen. However, I'm unreservedly recommending this one.
It's a social history of both India and the game there, following its founding in colonial times up until the latter-day clashes with Pakistan. It only really describes matches when they're relevant to the socio-political context, concentrating especially on the Bombay Quadrangular, a competition in the 1920s and 30s where the teams competed along religious/ethnic lines. It highlights the early, and unsung, heroes of Indian cricket - Baloo Palwankar and CK Nayudu - and evokes the country's irrational love of an imported sport brilliantly from start to finish. Good debunking too of the myth behind Lord Harris - proven here not to have been the game's founding father in India at all - and a great account of England's first tour there in the 1930s under one D Jardine, the year after Bodyline.
Meticulously researched and written throughout, it has to be a better bet than self-serving autobiographies and tedious tour diaries.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having lived in India, and being a great cricket fan, I was really looking forward to this book. The subject matter looks great and the idea for a great book is here.
That said, this book is very hard work. It is meticulously researched and the author has left no corner unturned. I simply found it hard to enjoy. Opening it up to read the next few pages came to be a chore not very far into the book.
I feel this is more like a textbook, something that a student of Indian history may be happy to plough through, but as somebody just reading it for leisure and pleasure, I just felt like there was simply too much information to absorb. I don't read textbooks for pleasure.
Would love to give this more than the 3 stars, but I didn't finish it, and to be honest I am only giving it 3 stars because I figure the amount of work the author has clearly put into it doesn't deserve less.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Indian cricket pre-Test History
13 Sep 2003
Format: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
One of the best books on Indian cricket
20 April 2004
Format: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
excellent book on the early social history of Indian cricket
13 Nov 2004
Format: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.
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.
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