The Tao of Cricket

"Ashis Nandy is one of India’s most charismatic and in some ways controversial public intellectuals. He is by training a psychologist but he has written extensively on politics and sociology. In fact, this book is a very minor book by him. It is a slim volume, almost a pamphlet, but what makes it so interesting is that he brings his enormous erudition in politics and sociology to bear on the rise of Indian cricket. He starts off his analysis with Ranjitsinhji. – who was also known as Ranji. India’s premier domestic cricket trophy is called the Ranji Trophy after him. He played for England and has some very famous English friends. C B Fry wrote about him extensively amongst others. He was a very charismatic right-hand batsman and a good bowler as well. Nandy looks at the rise of Ranji and gives a very complete and interesting explanation of why Ranji was accepted within the English cricket establishment and why he was one of the front-ranking English cricketers of his time. He played for England, had a brilliant test record. But there is this very ambiguous relationship with Indian cricket. He did precious little to help Indian cricket or cricketers. When India started playing Test cricket he refused to play for them. By then he was past his prime but it would have been a great moral boost for the Indian team. Nandy thinks he wouldn’t play for any side that he knew would lose the game, and I think this business of not being willing to play for a side that he is sure will lose is an interesting case of not showing great sportsmanship. Because to be sporting you need to play the game for the game’s sake and here was Ranji refusing to do that. He was an anglophile and he had very rigid notions if society’s structures. Because of his royal upbringing and background he had very little sympathy for the Indian nationalist movement and I think by not playing for India he was subverting the Indian nationalist movement. Nandy contrasts Ranji’s life, in passing, with that of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born just three years earlier in nearby Porbander. This is where you see what a strong link there is between sports and politics. Games are much closer to politics and warfare than arts or aesthetics. But when you are talking of sportsmanship it is a value which is akin to arts and aesthetics. You don’t talk about being a sport in politics or warfare. Pure games, without the sportsmanship, removes it from art and aesthetics and takes it far nearer to politics and warfare."