Book: A Corner of A Foriegn Field

Author: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher:

‘A corner of a foreign field’ by Ramachandra Guha is a massive compilation of redresses owed by the legions of Cricket fans in India to the early protagonists at different times in the Indian history of the game. It is a belated acknowledgement of skills and efforts of the truly dedicated people who did not have much to play Cricket for, except, and at the expense of drawing a cliché, “for the love of the game.”

The author starts with the history of the game in India and does not concern himself with the history of the game itself, which would have him look beyond the Indian horizons, other than in places where that touch of acknowledgement may be ultimately required or where a parallel can easily be drawn with an instance of the indianization of the sport. The title of the first chapter, ‘The Homesick colonial and the Imitative Native,’ may be considered an implicit acknowledgement of the game’s roots and history but Guha does not waist too much time there and moves right along to 1721 when according to him the first time Cricket was played on Indian soil. Astonishingly, the first game of cricket then was also bet on by the viewing public (Mostly British soldiers). Perhaps with this comment Guha is trying to front the ‘fact’ that betting was always part and parcel of the game. He mentions all the historic steps that Cricket took in its early days in India including the establishment of the first Cricket Club, which was set up in 1792 in Calcutta. Madras and Bombay followed suit in years that came and Cricket started to penetrate the local fancy.

It is important to note here that the book, and as much is admitted by the author himself in the epilogue, was originally supposed to have been about a forgotten Indian great named Pulwankar Baloo. This gentleman played Cricket in India before India became a test-playing nation. ‘A slow to medium pace left arm bowler who could supposedly turn the ball square,’ is how his Cricket is described in the book. The reason why Guha took to the task was his discovery that Baloo was one of the two gentlemen who helped the negotiations between Gandhi and B.R.Ambedkar while these two gentlemen of import were hammering out the well-known Poona Pact. This was odd because Baloo, as the author later found out, stood in general elections as an opposing candidate to B.R. Ambedkar, hence making him the first cricketer-turned-politician in the subcontinent. This is the reason why most of the beginning of the book, after it arrives in its narrative to the second last turn of the century, talks about this gentleman who apparently did a great deal to further the cause of the ‘untouchables’ in India. However, it does make the book a little bit more difficult to read with Guha jumping back and forth skipping decades at times only to come back to what is considered the roaring start of the twentieth century in India. Understandably, however, there was no way around that. Guha must have made the choice of writing a history of Indian cricket book around the original endeavor of writing, what may have been a biography of Mr. Baloo. Guha’s style of writing is appealing, however opinion oriented to some extent. He traces Indian Cricket’s steps through what was the Quadrangular and eventually became a Pentangular played amongst different communities in the metropolis of Bombay. Since the central character of his original work, Pulwankar Baloo, played for the team representing the Hindus, Guha spends a lot of time dissecting the views and the atmosphere around the creation of the first Hindu Gymkhana in Bombay called PJ Hindu Gymkhana. Guha also talks about Palwankar’s three brothers, who were cricketers in their own right. A lot of the discussion in the book may appear to be from the Hindu point of view but what must be taken into account is that the author must have started the research with the understanding that he is going to be writing about one of the unknown Indian greats who was an untouchable Hindu so the material he gathered must have favored that angle in its volume. Also, Hindus were the crushing majority at that time in India, just as much as they are now. It seems only fair, even if it may be admitted, with a hint of trepidation that any book written about India or anything as ‘Indian’ as Cricket should rest most of the focus on Hindus. Guha is however generous in acknowledging the role Parsees played in propagation of Cricket in Bombay. Parsees were the first to establish a Gymkhana of their own. The Hindus followed them and Muslims as usual were the last to take a hint. Partition and politics in India is covered without a great deal of detail. Guha dedicates a couple of chapters to relations between India and Pakistan as well as a rough narration of games played by the two Asian giants against each other on each others’ soil through the pleasant and not so pleasant times. There is some mention of betting and ball tampering but only in the context of its part in Cricket history in India as well as its effects on Indian Cricket. Guha proves his purist instincts by paying much more attention to the traditional forms of cricket as opposed to the more recent form of One day Cricket. There is a mention in passing of cricket in the US and Guha also underlines a visit that he made to a picturesque ground in the Bay Area in California. (He misspells it as Merrin instead of Marin, which is the name of the county north of San Francisco where the ground is located.)

The book is not as easy to read as some of the other books about cricket since there is a fair dosage of politics and Indian history as well as the intrigues and communal interchanges that took place on and off the field in India pre and post partition. The discussion remains off the field for quite some time in the book. However, that may precisely be why this book can be recommended. It is something that everyone who is interested in Indian history and Cricket’s role in it, should read.

Title: A Corner of A Foreign Field
Author: Ramachandra Guha
Published by: Picador Inc. 2002
Pages: 440