The whole 22 yards

The whole 22 yards
Two cricket lovers have written a book on the game that has something for every cricket lover, from anecdotes to analysis and then some more

If you run into S Giridhar and VJ Raghunath, authors of Midwicket Tales – From Trumper to Tendulkar, keep two things in mind. First, think twice before calling yourself a cricket fan. Not when you have to Google the name Trumper. And especially not when you are familiar mainly with the current crop of players and the IPL. If you bump into them at the airport lounge, as former Indian cricketer Salim Durrani did, offer them a drink and get them started on the subject.

In any case, the book will do for lovers of the game. It brings alive the spirit of the game and the stuff that legends are made of, like a not-to-be missed interview with India’s great bowler and reputed umpire S Venkataraghavan that has delightful anecdotes told by the legend himself.

Cricket aficionados have described the book as fascinating and some have pointed out a few factual errors. However, the fact remains that Midwicket Tales reels in even frivolous cricket watchers. The duo answers ’s googlies.



Tell us how the book happened.

Giridhar (G): Cricket has always been a passion, and Raghu and I are old friends. He was also a superb cricketer. I wrote an essay — my first — about meeting Durrani at Delhi airport. That was the starting point. We decided to combine and write a series of essays on the game whose tone and timbre would combine sound technical knowledge, history, analysis and love for the game. After we had a dozen such essays, people said it was time for a book.

Raghunath (R): While the Durrani meeting set us off, it was the response and encouragement from readers to the blogs on Cricinfo.com that made us think of a book.



How did you approach the subject?

G: Each essay began as an animated discussion about an aspect of cricket. We brought facts, figures and analysis to the table. Plus stuff we have read and matches we have seen firsthand. And having played the game we brought the knowledge of the technical nuances of the game. For instance, asking Rahul Dravid to tell us about Sachin Tendulkar was obvious, because you cannot get anyone better than one who has seen him bat from 22 yards away for 143 Test matches!



Cricket has been an important part of your lives.

G: I loved the game right from childhood and played as a school cricketer and in city and inter-office tournaments. I also loved literature on cricket. Raghu played first division cricket, rubbing shoulders with the best Test cricketers in Chennai and Mumbai. I had the pleasure of playing for the same office team as Raghu in the 1980s.

R: Cricket was my life from the age of six. I learnt spelling and phonetics from Amarnath, Phadkar, Hazare and Umrigar before ‘apple’ and ‘cat’. My father was worried I wouldn’t study but my mother who introduced me to the game was supportive. My grandfather and uncles were sports crazy and the cricket literature available at our Basavangudi house was amazing. I would be poring over bound copies of Sport and Pastime all the time. During summer holidays we would play tennis ball cricket the whole day. My grandfather and his brother ran BUCC in the Bangalore league. And I ended up scoring for the Bangalore team when they toured Chennai.



Cricketers are notoriously reticent with the media. How did you get them to talk?

G: We can only guess. We are not professional cricket journalists, but the genre of our book and our understanding of the game might have appealed to them. People like Durani and Kirmani are friendly. Or maybe they had a soft corner for our age?

R: I have played cricket with Venkatraghavan and talked and discussed cricket with him for over 40 years. So I suppose it was trust and credibility built over time. A friend introduced us to Dravid. He is a great guy and saw two serious students of the game who were not after any sensationalism or controversy.



Alright, let’s talk cricket. The best Indian captain in your opinion.

G: Indians will remember Tiger Pataudi and Sourav Ganguly. But here I will add that Jaisimha and Ashok Mankad were the shrewdest captains in domestic cricket although they never captained the country. Like Shane Warne is considered the best Australian captain never to have captained his country!

R: Ganguly! He backed his players, was attacking and aggressive and instilled self-belief in our team.



The best cricketer?

G: In my view, Gary Sobers.

R: Without a doubt, Sobers. He was four players in one. Kapil Dev is my greatest Indian cricketer.



An all-time classic match.

G: At least 20 matches will claim that distinction. But one of the most thrilling matches was the 1960 tied Test between Australia and West Indies.

R: Yes, perhaps that Brisbane Test. Sobers’ batting and Davidson’s all-round play made it memorable to a 14-year-old listening to the radio.



What problems plague cricket today?

G: The administrators of the game must be committed to preserving the spirit of the game. We must differentiate T20 from IPL. A world championship between countries for T20 or 50 overs can be as thrilling as Test cricket. But IPL is just glitz. While it provides opportunities to young cricketers to learn from established cricketers, it brings collateral dangers that can seriously derail their overall growth.

R: Our current showing in England proves that T20 and Test cricket are very different. The technique and temperament are poles apart. With the current levels of fitness, players who are trying to play both will suffer injuries.
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In The Atelier

S GIRIDHAR and VJ RAGHUNATH
The two met in 1984 and started a deep-rooted friendship. S Giridhar (COO at Azim Premji University) and VJ Raghunath (consultant with Azim Premji Foundation) have watched league matches, Ranji, Duleep, Test and one-day matches and traded stories and opinions. Giridhar says he played his best cricket at 30 and wished it was true of his younger days, while Raghunath led the Madras Colts team to Bombay in 1968. Even for this interview, the two worked almost seamlessly, often writing responses together as one voice. Raghunath says, “Between the two of us, we have read almost everything written on cricket.” And as Harsha Bhogle, cricket commentator, writes in the foreword: “But for all its riches, cricket is, as Raghu and Giri tell us, only a game. It is a passion, it is a way of life, but it is a game and it must breed tolerant objectivity….”

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Written with the passion of a fan and the knowledge of a cricketer, Midwicket Tales – From Trumper to Tendulkar is for all genuine lovers of cricket from every cricketing nation. It celebrates cricket in all its hues and brings alive the rich history, romance and technical nuances of the game, where diligent research and analysis is blended with rare and interesting anecdotes.
PUBLISHER: Sage India

PRICE: Rs 525
PAGES: 246