The book being reviewed, thankfully, does not claim to be a treatise on the Indian cricket team’s recent triumphs and tribulations; nor, a definitive work on all that has affronted and afflicted Indian cricket in the last 50 years or so.
Having made this clear, the job becomes less painstaking and, more often, a pleasant exercise as the author, Pradeep Magazine takes us through his up-and-down journey as a journalist extensively covering cricket, a game he loves, and also loathes; and at the same time, shares his painful growing-up years in strife-torn Srinagar.
With the narration continuously oscillating between his personal and professional life, the author struggles to hit the right balance and present either of the version with equal felicity, if not conviction.
However, his early life, starting with his family’s migration from Srinagar to Chandigarh initially and finally to New Delhi, is a lucid account of painful memories. Some of it, like, for instance, his visit to his ancestral home, 200 Magazine House, Karan Nagar in Srinagar, a combat zone, is touching and traumatic at the same time.
But the same cannot be said about the author’s professional, and intermittently painful, journey which is also narrated in great detail, but, with somewhat a blinkered or an unbalanced attitude.
The author projects himself as self-righteous right through, always politically correct, and never, intentionally or unintentionally, blind to certain facts or biased towards some events or personalities.
As a journalist working for various newspapers, it is improbable, if not impossible, not to have veered a bit in judgment or justification, or erred in assumption or prediction of some fast-developing events during the most toxic period in Indian and international cricket between the late 90s and the first decade of the new millennium.
Off-the-field shenanigans
The aforementioned period, as we all are well aware, was largely about match-fixing, betting, racism, nepotism, financial mismanagement, ego clashes among the biggies in the BCCI, and the ICC, and, above all, the sudden birth and sensational growth of the IPL.
Off-the-field events dominated every section of a newspaper — front and back, editorial, ‘opinion’ ‘letters’ and even business pages — though there were many heroic and historical performances on the field, like India’s incredible victories in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 and the 2011 50-overs World Cup which was Sachin Tendulkar’s brightest spot in his twilight years.
A biopic (Azhar) and many books (like, Cricket Czars) on the ‘biggest controversy’ and the powerful people caught in its whirlwind only heightened the suspense and deepened the mystery.
The author dutifully touches on all these controversies and conundrums, at times inter-weaving his personal interactions with some of his favourite players and officials. But there is hardly anything insightful or earth-shaking revealed while much more was expected from a journalist who professes to have been among the ‘firsts’ to ‘unearth’ the biggest match-fixing scandal, involving Mohammed Azharuddin and Hansie Cronje.
The other jarring aspect is that the author flirts with the blurry border that separates sensitivity and sensationalism in journalism, even if it concerns a non-playing member of a protracted plot; who is not among us today to defend himself or dispute the untasteful allegations.
“He (the late Ron Hendricks, the much-admired sportswriter, who also headed the sports department of this newspaper among many others) was a legendary drinker as well, and those who have worked with him say that unless he got drunk, he could not write copy… his colleagues would have to literally seat him in a chair and put a typewriter in front of him. He would then come to life, his fingers moving furiously over the keys as he typed out his match report,” he writes with blatant contempt for journalistic etiquette and lack of respect for the dead.
“Ron’s accomplishments only encouraged us to justify our drinking bouts even while we were covering matches,” he proclaims, almost proudly, while he should have been more concerned about his frailties.
Overall, this work may or may not find pride of place in your study, but it can certainly be an easy read on a rainy day.