review Pundits from Pakistan On tour with India 2003 04

Pundits from Pakistan On tour with India 2003 04 Download ✓ 6 A cricketing romp through Pakistan In early 2004 the Indian cricket team set out for Pakistan Pundits describes the subseuent tour detailing the matches the moods the games and the playe My first cricket memory is undoubtedly Indian team touring Pakistan in 2004 This book is an amazing amalgam of cricket writing and travelogue The author uite glamorously weaves a complete story out of the 2004 tour while carefully setting the stage as to why this tour was important for both countries going through each and every match intricately and peppering the chapters with a few interviews here and thereThis book has basically three main facets 1 Travelogue This book can also be considered as a travelogue for Pakistan where we get to see a major chunk of day to day life in Pakistan through the eyes of the author He creates a certain milieu about each Pakistan city which he visited and the reader starts associating those characteristics with that particular city He also interacts with a lot of locals in each city so as to get a general understanding of the air around it In particular his vivid juxtaposition of Karachi and Bombay was stoking He describes the city of Multan like this CHAR CHEEZE tofa e Multangard gada gurmee o goristan There are several English versions of this Persian doggerel The literal would be Four things have been gifted to us by MultanDust beggars heat and graveyards2 Cricketing Interviews The author has a knack for asking the right uestions and extracting the right answers from the person being interviewed He interviews a large number of Pakistani players of then past and present He drops by at Danish Kaneria s the only Hindu player in Pakistani team home for a chat and cheekily asks his family of which team do they support when India and Pakistan are playing against each other He talks with the fast bowler prodigy Aaib Javed and asks him the reason behind the formidable pace attack of Pakistan team since its conception Then he also interviews the leg spin legend Abdul adir at his academy and tries to eke out Pakistani secrets The only Indian cricketer he interviewed was Sourav Ganguly and I was left gasping for 3 Cricket Matches Whatever I say would not be enough about the graphic and evocative description of matches given by the writer It was almost like I was watching the matches with the eyes of my mind Since I am out of touch with cricket for a few years now I had to revise my fielding positions to make sense of the different shots played by the cricketers Hands down the author nailed this part of the book He describes player with such stimulating images sometimes funny that it pierces your heart Author on VVS Laxman Or put it this way strip away the context strip away the circumstances strip away the competition and all the rest of the stuff that really make sport strip it strip it strip it down to a man and a stick and nothing and the art of VVS barely resonates any lessAuthor on Sehwag s carefree style of playingSehwag was still in still paying heed to the voice of Rafi in his head Barbadiyon ka sog manana fizul thaBarbadiyon ka jashn manata chala gaya Futile it was to mourn my ruinSo I kept on celebrating my ruin and accordingly raised fifty in fifty five balls with ten fours none badly hitIn short a great book for all cricket lovers and those who want re live those glorious days of Indian cricket

Pundits from Pakistan On tour with India 2003 04 Download ✓ 6 Rs More than merely that though it is also a book about the first major sporting encounter between India and Pakistan in 15 years a period in which the two countries had fought one war a This is my second book by Rahul Bhattacharya The first one The sly company of people who care was semi fiction and although his writing was excellent it suffered from a severe shallowness of plot But when you are writing about an India Pakistan tour with enough twists and sub plots to bamboozle even fiction writers you only have to worry about your writing style And when that s covered you already have a good book on your handThe 2003 04 series is one of my all time favourite India tours India won both the ODI and test series after much talk of them being made to wipe the floor But looking back they probably were lucky to run into one of the weakest Pakistani sides while being at one of their strongest ever themselves And they were also lucky that Gul got injured before the Pindi testBhattacharya starts right at the political winds at that time with a now on now off tour before the PM has to step in and say the final word on it Then he moves on to his struggles to get a visa to cover the tour finding the hotel the team landing etc Apart from match reports which are excellent and almost relive the whole series for you there are interviews of Shoaib Akthar s family Aauib Javed Abdul adir etc in between the matches that keep things interestingYes there are uite a few pages dedicated to that declaration And thankfully he writes from his own perspective How the media and former and current players were happy to jump on it The infamous Declaration of Independence by Ian Chappell and Ponting of all people saying I wouldn t have declared This is one incident who s resolution Wright Dravid and Tendulkar would probably take to their graves And rightly so Even Wright goes evasive about what really was talked about But then for the good of the game it was resolved and they got on with it Kudos to both Dravid and Tendulkar for thatThe best features are of course the match reports and the press conferences After all these years can appreciate Ganguly s captaincy much better now You can t help laughing at the excellent playing of the media using his own coterie of journalists The Nehra injury incident was superbly played And Bhattacharya s writing style of course only adds to it He knows how to draw a laugh out Even about regular things like Inzy s runing the Dravid Ganguly running fiascos etcGood stuff A must read for any cricket fan I d say

Rahul Bhattacharya Ý 6 Read

Pundits from Pakistan On tour with India 2003 04 Download ✓ 6 Nd come close to another What emerges is a fascinating contemporary account of a beautiful game in its most crucial setting captured through the eyes of a young Indian discovering Pakist The best booktraveloguereportage on subcontinental cricket ever writtenBhattacharya s prose is mesmerizing

• Hardcover
• 344
• Pundits from Pakistan On tour with India 2003 04
• Rahul Bhattacharya
• English
• 15 October 2018
• 9780330439794