Every cricket fan wants to know more about their cricketers, and their stories on and off the field. They want more insight than what they get to know on TV, read in the papers, or through the social media pages of cricketers, experts and institutional handles.
In Boria Majumdar’s (renowned cricket journalist, historian and co-author of Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography) highly anticipated new book – Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond has brought forward the unknown stories and hidden tales of cricket.
He has tried to bring out the truth behind controversies, closed-door boardroom discussions of all the stakeholders and decision makers, gossip and more. In this book, Boria has tried to scratch the layers of Indian cricket to bring you a first-hand account of that time or event or controversy. While going through this book, one gets to know the depth of Boria’s sources in the cricketing circles, and gets the ringside view of all that has happened in Indian cricket recently.
From the Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble tussle to the Committee of Administrators (COA) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials’ constant battles, from the inside gossip of franchise owners and their maverick ways of running their teams to dressing room snippets and tales that were small, yet an important part of one of their achievements. Through this book, one gets to see the human face of their cricketing demi-Gods. If you love your cricket, this book is as great as it can get for the information you need.
Here are some of the excerpts from the book reliving interesting stories and moments.
1. When Sachin Danced to a Bollywood Number with a Flower in His Ear
A confession is in order here. When I was co-writing Playing It My Way, one of the things I was very keen on knowing was what emotion Tendulkar felt when Dhoni hit the winning six at Wankhede. From the time the ball had left his bat to being dispatched over the ropes, three or four seconds at best had elapsed. What was Sachin thinking as he tracked the ball back from the 22 yards strip to over the boundary? To my disappointment, he had not watched Dhoni hit the winning runs.Boria Majumdar writes in his book
“I was in the dressing room with Virender Sehwag and had even forbidden Viru from going out to the balcony. I have seen the shot a million times on television thereafter but no, I did not see Dhoni hitting it,” said Tendulkar.
After the presentation ceremony, Sudhir Gautam, by then the official emblem of Indian sports’ fandom, was called into the dressing room by Tendulkar and given the World Cup trophy to hold and celebrate. ‘Maine aajtak itna zor se shankh kabhi nahi bajaya [I’ve never blown the conch this hard],’ Sudhir said. Here was an Indian fan from a very modest background, standing in the Indian dressing room with his hero with the World Cup in hand; only sports could make such a moment possible.
Moments after he had entered his room in the hotel, Tendulkar danced to a Bollywood number with a flower in his ear. A sight such as that was inconceivable in normal circumstances from a conservative, disciplined traditionalist like Tendulkar.
This was a very peculiar Indian modernity on show. Tendulkar was in the private confines of an ultra-luxurious five-star hotel, very Indian in symbolism and essence, and celebrating to a Bollywood number with a flower in his ear.
Tendulkar, who loves Western music and is a connoisseur of sorts, preferred a more popular Indian number to anything Western that night. It might as well be a coincidence, but surely, it’s an interesting one. And this modernity was reinforced when Dhoni appeared before the media the next morning with the World Cup in hand, but in a completely different avatar. The Indian captain, once known for his flowing hair, had given it all up to commemorate the victory.
2. Rajasthan Royals CEO’s Recount the Fateful Morning in IPL 2013
We were staying at The Oberoi and I got a call at 5:30 am from the duty manager of the hotel. My wife picked up the call and passed it to me in a jiffy. The duty manager told me me that several policemen, including an assistant commissioner from the Mumbai Police, were waiting downstairs and I was to go down as soon as possible. We had a sponsor shoot with Cyrus Broacha (a television anchor and video jockey) the previous day, and my first thought was that this was a prank. I was being made a bakra. I even said so and tried to laugh it off. That’s when I was told it wasn’t a prank and that I was being summoned.Raghu Iyer, CEO, Rajasthan Royals
The Royals CEO went down within minutes and was met by a team from the Delhi Police, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in a safari suit. The cops had done due diligence and were there to arrest three of the Royals players on charges of spot-fixing. Iyer had literally been pulled out of bed and was now being told of the arrests. He was helpless, and found it hard to comprehend – as would anyone in his position. All he managed to ask was if the cops had a warrant. They did, and for the next hour, they explained to Iyer all the evidence they had against the three players in question. It was incontrovertible proof; something rotten was going on.
‘They were in no hurry and only after explaining it to me in detail did they tell me that they were going to Ankeet Chavan’s room to pick him up,’ said Iyer. There was very little for him to do but feel gutted and apprehensive. The two others, Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila, had already been nabbed and were waiting in a police van outside.
For Iyer, the happenings seemed more reel life than real, but the truth was, he was one of the central characters of the drama. He was caught in the middle of the biggest crisis the IPL had ever seen, and as chief executive, he was expected to take charge of a situation that was on a downward spiral. The misty morning, very typical of Mumbai, best described Iyer’s state of mind. To see three of his players being arrested and hauled away on charges of corruption was the worst a chief executive could ever anticipate.Boria Majumdar writes in his book
3. Kolkata Knight Riders’ Coach John Buchanan’s Experiments
With the IPL moving to South Africa, John Buchanan was aware he wouldn’t have to deal with irate Sourav Ganguly fans at Eden Gardens. Taking advantage of the relocation, Buchanan went ahead with his plans of executing the multiple captaincy theory.
In hindsight, Ganguly finds it bemusing. ‘None of us knew what was going on,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘In one of our practice sessions, John had placed Brad Hodge at midwicket, Andy Bichel on top of the sight screen at one end, he himself was perched on the other end, and there was a fourth person standing where deep cover would be.Boria Majumdar writes in his book
Each of them would follow John’s signal and relay it to the on-field captain, Brendon McCullum, in this case, who was to follow the signal and instruct the bowler accordingly. If the signal was a finger next to the ear, it would mean a bouncer and so on. I had never seen anything like this on the cricket field, and I wasn’t sure if Brendon had either.’
Having spoken to other KKR players, it is clear they were equally confused. Ashok Dinda, the Indian fast bowler, who was one of the successes for KKR in IPL season one, was the most puzzled. On one occasion, when Dinda was walking back to bowl, he saw the captain signal something to him. Interestingly, the bowler, in Buchanan’s scheme, had no agency to decide what delivery he would bowl.
All he needed to do was follow the coach’s signal. Dinda mistakenly assumed that he was being asked to bowl a yorker when Buchanan actually wanted him to bowl a bouncer! He ended up doing the exact opposite of what the coach wanted and was smacked for a boundary.
‘It was ridiculous to see what was going on. All of us were being instructed to look at the coach and his support staff spread out all around the ground. And then just follow the signal system which John had devised. It was natural this wouldn’t work and the season would end in disaster.’ The batting order and team composition was also decided by the coach.
In one of the games, Brendon literally came running to me, 20 minutes ahead of the start of play, telling me John wanted him and me to open. We ran back to get ready and go out and bat.Sourav Ganguly
The more Ganguly opens up about what had happened in South Africa in April 2009, the more it seems to me this is his ‘I told you so’ moment. He had been humiliated and unceremoniously removed from captaincy, and the team management had put a system in place that had no place in cricket.
Cricket, unlike football, is not a sport where the captain does not have time to think and marshal his resources. Every ball is followed by a gap of nearly 45 seconds, enough time for the captain to gather his thoughts and execute his plans. By trying to make the captain a mere puppet on the field and control things via an invisible remote control, Buchanan made the same mistake that Chappell had committed two years earlier.Boria Majumdar writes in his book
(Nishant Arora is an award-winning cricket journalist, and most recently, the media manager of the Indian Cricket Team. He also co-authored the best-selling book on Yuvraj Singh’s battle with cancer)
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