WINNER OF THE 2025 EKAMRA SPORTS LITERATURE FESTIVAL SPECIAL JURY AWARD
Khep, 7s and Basti
Football in India is alive and kicking!
Not because of a few famous clubs and the top competitions, but because of the regional tournaments, local heroes and the people who keep football culture alive.
The hugely popular Khep games in Kolkata, the hotly contested 7s league in Kerala, the many Basti tournaments in Meghalaya—all of these have kept the ball rolling. And that’s not all. Be it in hilly Mizoram and Nagaland, amidst the lush greens of Punjab, the sandy beaches of Thoothoor in Tamil Nadu or the fabled villages of Goa—football holds a special place in the hearts of many.
Sacred Grounds is an attempt to tell the stories of the many unique Indian football cultures. It is an effort to shine a spotlight on local heroes and other names lost in history or restricted to certain silos, to narrate their fables and myths, and archive their unknown and forgotten stories. It explores the history, folklore, terrain and culture of different corners of India through the prism of football, using the sporting culture and values to reflect the society and its people.
‘I do not want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there; one is trying to play cricket; and the other is not.’
‘There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?’
‘Thank you for making my tournament a success.’
‘Girls don’t play cricket.’
Bodyline, World Series Cricket and IPL—all seminal events in the game’s history and succinctly captured in the quotes above by Bill Woodfull, Kerry Packer and Lalit Modi, respectively. And a casual comment made by a policeman to Rachael Heyhoe, which spurred her on to become a cricketer and eventually organize the World Cup, two years before the men’s!
Caught Yapping takes a never-trodden before route to narrate the history of cricket, using the medium of quotes to do the talking.
Why quotes?
Cricket has inspired considerable literature and continues to do so. Then there are words the people of cricket have spoken on the field, in press conferences, in commentary boxes and elsewhere. These are tales that scorecards do not tell, stories of heroes and villains, rises and falls, temptations and resistance, inclusions and exclusions. This book chronicles the history of cricket, and history means little without the people. And what better way to tell the story of the people than in their own words?
Fourth in the world to have six victims in an innings on debut; claimed five victims in a world-cup match; was adjudged as the world’s best wicket-keeper in the 1983 Prudential World Cup—this is Syed Kirmani for you. Very few people from the current generation know that Kirmani holds three world records.
A legend, Kirmani is one of the exceptional wicketkeepers to have ever graced the game of cricket. This book is not only about his life as a cricketer and as a person but also about an epic period of Indian cricket, the period in which India won the 1983 world cup, the Asia Cup and the World Championship of Cricket. A role model to budding cricketers, Kirmani through this autobiography, for the first time, opens his heart out candidly discussing the highest and lowest points of his career—from being one of the best in business to unceremoniously exiting the game.
क्रिकेट का खेल बल्ले और गेंद की लड़ाई है। इस लड़ाई में कुछ सूरमा होते हैं, जो विरोधी टीम का पहला वार झेलते हैं। इन्हीं सूरमाओं को ओपनर्स या प्रचलित भाषा में सलामी बल्लेबाज कहा जाता है। सलामी बल्लेबाज को अपनी टीम को अच्छी शुरुआत दिलानी होती है। वो भी तब जबकि वो पिच, नई गेंद के साथ हवा के बर्ताव से बिलकुल बेख़बर होता है। गेंदबाज़ के पास हमेशा गलती को सुधारने का दूसरा मौका होता है, बल्लेबाज के पास नहीं। इसके बावजूद क्रिकेट इतिहास में ऐसे दिग्गज ओपनर्स हुए हैं, जिन्हें दुनिया सलाम करती है। ओपनर्स‘ क्रिकेट इतिहास के 5 ऐसे ही दृढ़ संकल्प वाले सैनिकों यानी सलामी बल्लेबाज़ों की कहानी है। जैफरी बायकॉट, गॉर्डन ग्रीनिज, श्रीकांत, डेविड बून, जयसूर्या, मैथ्यू हेडेन, सौरव गांगुली, आमिर सोहेल, वीरेंद्र सहवाग समेत 25 अंतरराष्ट्रीय सलामी बल्लेबाज़ों को इस किताब का हिस्सा बनाया गया है।
For all but the final day of six electric weeks during the winter of 2023, India’s campaign at a home World Cup blazed and sparkled, warming the soul of a cricket-crazed nation. As Rohit Sharma’s dominant side took their show on the road, from one delirious city to another hysterical town, stretching from the sunburnt coast of Chennai to the frozen mountains of Dharamshala, the greatest cricket team to not win a World Cup edition unified a vast and diverse country in their shade of blue.
Gully Gully reveals not only what cricket means to India, but also what Indians mean to cricket by capturing the best and the worst of us, along with the grit and the grime of the land. This book is as much about a fabulous team brimming with legends as it is about the game’s other, oft-forgotten heroes: nameless and faceless Indian fans, emerging from numerous gullies.
Looking back on 50 years of the Usha Stud Farm.
Grit, Grace and Glory: The Usha Story celebrates the vision, resolve, and farsightedness of India’s top horse breeders Pradeep Mehra and his daughter Ameeta, through rare photographs and an eloquent, heartwarming narrative. The book also dives into the technical profiles and detailed statistics of horses that made, and continue to make, Usha the leading stud farm in India today.
The book is an intimate exploration of Pradeep Mehra’s struggles as a “backyard breeder” with no assets other than an eye for, and understanding of, horses. It captures the turmoil of his tragic passing and the challenges Ameeta overcame as she gathered the reins, and took forward his dream. In February 2023, Usha Stud achieved what no other stud farm in the world has ever been able to – a clean sweep, its horses placing 1-2-3-4 in a national derby!
Sport is a petri dish. In it, society tests not only human limits but also individual and collective attitudes and norms, often before they impact the wider world beyond the boundary.
In its quest for universal rules, organized sport must regularly balance multiple interests and answer difficult questions. This helps sport—and through sport, society—to tweak laws, markets, morals and technological advances. The outcomes of the resulting debates influence the way we live, view each other, and organize our world.
Why should we care about sport and its governance? Within the covers of Boundary Lab lie the answers.
यह पुस्तक मशहूर क्रिकेट कमेंटेटर सुशील दोषी का आत्मकथात्मक संस्मरण है जिसमें उन्होंने अपने पांच दशकों की क्रिकेट कमेंटरी के अनुभवों को दर्ज किया है। इस पुस्तक में देश-विदेश में हुए उन मैचों के विवरण हैं जहाँ उन्होंने इन दशकों में पाँच सौ से अधिक मैचों में कमेंटरी दी थी। यह किताब क्रिकेट के प्रेमियों के लिए एक नायाब पुस्तक है जिसमें खेले की बारिकियाँ, उसका क्रमिक विकास, खिलाड़ियों का विश्लेषण और कई ऐसी कहानियाँ शामिल हैं जो आमतौर पर लोगों से अछूती रहती हैं। यह किताब सन् पचास के दशक से लेकर वर्तमान काल तक की क्रिकेट की कहानियों पर प्रकाश डालती है।
In 2008, a few days after being selected to coach the Indian cricket team, Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton set themselves the goals of winning the World Cup in 2011 and becoming the number one Test team in the world. Over three years of their innovative and creative ways of coaching, the team achieved these goals, and more.
Paddy’s journey included working with the South African cricket team as the cricket world’s first fitness trainer, becoming a mental coach in professional sport and, in 2012, becaming head coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. Since then, he has coached five teams in thirteen seasons across three of the world’s premier T20 leagues.
The Barefoot Coach is packed with Paddy’s out-of-the-box thinking and illuminating anecdotes on winning, preparation, failure and working to resolve life’s tangled knots. Inspiring, candid and unusual in its approach to coaching, and with fascinating breakaways into extreme sport, this is a must-read for everyone who wishes to enhance their performance, and their lives.
‘It never occurred to me to just play it safe and get to where no Indian had gotten before-a Test triple century. Do I regret reaching for the ball well outside off from McGrath that I spooned to point? Do I feel I should have batted out that one hour at my disposal and ticked off the 25 needed to get to the Promised Land? No, and no. I have never played my cricket that way . . . The individual milestone would have been terrific, but if I were to get the chance to replay that day, I would do exactly the same. I walked off the park immensely satisfied. I hadn’t missed out on 300 by 19 runs; I had made 281 . . . and put the team in a position from where we could expect to pull off a win against all odds. Isn’t that what you play the game for?’
A stylish batsman who could score against any kind of bowling, VVS Laxman played over a hundred Tests to aggregate more than 8000 runs. Cricket fans still remember with awe his game-changing knock of 281 against Australia in 2001 at Eden Gardens. But playing for India was never easy, and despite his vast experience and unimpeachable skill, he never made it to a World Cup team.
All through his playing years, Laxman was known to be a soft-spoken man who kept his distance from controversy. Which is what makes this autobiography truly special. It’s candid and reflective, happy and sad by turns. He writes of dressing-room meltdowns and champagne evenings, the exhilaration of playing with and against the best in the world, the learnings with John Wright and the rocky times under Greg Chappell.
In 281 and Beyond, Laxman lays bare the ecstasy and the trauma of being one of the chosen XI in a country that is devoted to cricket.
