Did you know it took 12 years to create the first Indian cricket team? Six Parsis, five Hindus, three Muslims and a Sikh captain in the team were chosen on religious lines, consciously meant to represent various communities. The team’s first tour to Britain in 1911 had Palwankar brothers — Palwankar Balu and Shivram — dalits playing together. Captain Maharaja Bhupender Singh was just 19 and had become the ruler of Patiala! Packed with many such fascinating anecdotes, the book Cricket Country by Prashant Kidambi is a story of the first Indian cricket team.
Book jacket
Being a historian, Hyderabad-based Prashant did extensive research to make sure Cricket Country (₹ 699; published in June, 2019 by Penguin India and in UK by Oxford University Press) is not told as a sports history but of modern India. He works at the University of Leicester in the UK Explaining how the book, his second, evolved, he says, “The book looks at how sports is closely connected with questions of identity representations and how itis shaped by politics — an issue that became my concern as a historian. Cricket Country connects themes important to history, particularly Asian history and a popular subject (cricket). Although the theme is significant and scholarly, I tried to write in a way that it appeals to everyone.”
Cricket is central to India’s identity and followed with immense passion. The eleven players from different regions and speaking different languages are united by their love for the game. “We think of this as a representation of India and the book tries to show where the connection between nation and sport originated,” he says adding it was fascinating to see what Indians made of cricket which came to India because of British.
Parsis were the first to take to cricket and send teams to Britain. “Cricket becomes an import sense of community identity. I write about Muslims for whom cricket becomes an important way of rethinking their relationship with the British empire.” If the book’s first part dwells on how the team came together, the second part highlights their tour during an ‘extraordinary summer.’ He says, “1911 turned out to a hottest summer in English history. The temperature was soaring and Indians couldn’t bear the heat.” The team travels in the backdrop of tough conditions — working class unrest, House of Lords in crisis, political establishment at loggerheads, women fighting for their rights and Irish issues — and play in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. “It was the home of empire but also a home which was crumbling.”
The batsmen struggle initially with unfamiliar conditions but bounce back as the tour continues. The two dalit brothers — Balu and Shivram become heroes as a successful bowler and batsman. In the 23 matches they play, the Indian team wins six. It was also the time of Swadeshi movement and the tour had sporting and political significance too. “Most educated Indians believed the only way to get rid of British is not through the politics based on petitions but by using bomb and gun. Others wanted to use cricket tour to show the British that if they play cricket, they cannot be opposed to them,” he says adding, “What we see today in sport is not nationalism but hyper nationalism and the team is meant to carry a load on behalf of the nation.”
The book is based on Prashant’s 10-year-work (seven years of research and three years of writing). From archival sources in UK and India to newspapers, government records (to tell the Patiala story), he also looked at the histories of Hindu, Parsi and Muslim cricket and diaries. “I wanted to write a book not just for sports lovers but those who like reading a serious work of history; It is not about cricket history but with cricket as the theme and there is a distinction between them.”
Prashant didn’t want to tell a story in a linear way so the narrative is put across in different ways. This was also an exercise in time travel so he had to construct a picture for readers to feel connected. The challenges were many — finding the sources (“They were scattered”), taking notes by hand ( “Digitisation started in a big way only later”) too much material and deciding what is relevant. “I found many characters in this book for whom I couldn’t do justice. Writing is my profession and I will continue doing it.”
