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Corner Of A Foreign Field: The Indian History Of A British Sport | 
 enlarge | Author: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $11.74
You Save: $10.21 (47%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 160797
Media: Paperback
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0330491172
Dewey Decimal Number: 954
EAN: 9780330491174
ASIN: 0330491172
Publication Date: December 31, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
An important, pioneering work, essential for anyone interested in cricket and India, A Corner of a Foreign Field is also a beautifully written meditation on the ramifications of sport in society at large, and how sport can influence both social and political history. A book that seamlessly interweaves biography with history, the lives of cricketers with wider processes of social change.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Easily the best book on Indian cricket - a joy to read March 14, 2008
Guha's book on cricket is many things that an Indian cricket fan and/or history buff would want to know about. What amazed me though was not the range of coverage Guha gives this topic (which he does) or the new insights he exposes (which he does very well), it was the fact that this book was quite simply, a joy to read! Guha writes like few historians: in a logical, structured manner that is easy to grasp and in an elegant style that is devoid of flash and full of substance. A wonderful book, and a must read for every Indian who grapples with the Whys and How comes of Indian cricket. Thank you, Mr. Guha.
Excellent review of the History of Cricket in India. January 12, 2007
Cricket is a passion in India that is probably matched only by South America in soccer. I share the same generation as Guha and have been reading his cricket dispatches for several years. I had always wondered about the origins of cricket in India and Guha has unravelled that mystery beautifully.
 excellent book on the early social history of Indian cricket November 13, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ram Guha is both an environmental historian and an avid cricket enthusiast. He dons the latter avatar here to write a fantastic history of Indian cricket. This is not just a history of cricket, but a history of Bombay in the late 19th-early 20th centuries as well, along with commentary on the battle fought by the Untouchables, and a biography of the Baloo brothers, all rolled into one. He also introduces what he calls the 'Empire of Cricket' hypothesis- that the English were encouraged that the Indians took to cricket, because they thought it was some sort of justification for their imperial mission.
One of the things I like about this book is that there aren't long winded descriptions of cricket matches. He picks out key matches, key innings, and doesn't go into laborious descriptions of the perfect square cut. By keeping it pithy he makes it way more exciting.
My only grouse is that I wish occasionally he'd be a historian more than a cricket writer. There is a lot of material there that is ripe for analysis, but I feel he deliberately subdues the historian in him to be accessible to the lay reader. I wish he'd looked at issues like land and space in Bombay a little more closely, using cricket as the nucleus.
One of the best books on Indian cricket April 21, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The title is deservingly flattering but then there are only a handful of Indian books on Indian cricket (Guha's own "Wickets in the East" is the 5 star rare-to-find masterpiece.) The book begins with a meticulous and stirring history & commentary on early Indian cricket. The focus gradually shifts onto the Quadrangular-Pentangular 'communal cricket' in Bombay from 1900s to the 1940s until MK Gandhi wisely raised his walking stick and put a stop to it. The high point of this book is Guha's reliving the cricketing struggles and exploits of the chamar (a still oppressed Indian caste) Palwankar brothers. After this Dr. Guha moves onto more contemporary stories in Indian cricket. This falls flat because in my opinion, it is too early to talk about the social ramifications of Indian cricket. (FYI, the Indian cricket is usually comforabally upper caste/class, despite the barriers broken by the Palwankar brothers many years ago.) But the story of early Indian cricket, the Palwankar brothers, and the description of early Indo-Pak cricket are more than enough to make this book a worthy read. Guha's writing talent lies in being able to provide a passionate commentary to this history while making sure one does not intrude on the other.
Indian cricket pre-Test History September 13, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Why did the Indian sub-continent take to cricket so completely? And why can't India have a proper sporting relationship with Pakistan? Why are the fans so passionate, and why is Sachin Tendulkar revered as a God?No Australian can really answer these questions, so I was glad to see Ramachandra Guha's "A Corner of a Foreign Field" which is an attempt to answer some of these questions. For such a cricket mad nation, India has been surprisingly lax about chronicalling it's cricket history, but Guha has done what digging he can. The cover of my copy is swathed in praise; the Literary Review calls it "wonderful". From a literary point of view, I cannot own that it is that good; the prose occasionally plays out a few maiden overs and it struggles to maintain a proper length. From a historical point of view, though, it is excellent, and explains a great deal not just about how the game started in the subcontinent, but also it explains the attitudes of the people to the game. And, it might be said, about other things. The communal hatreds of India and Pakistan make a lot more sense when you understand the Pentagular tournament that was the focus of Indian cricket until India became a serious Test nation. As an Australian, I got a mild sense of embarrassment reading this tome. It is clear that India's board and cricketing society have faithfully copied everything crass, commercial and nationalistic in the Australian game, and applied it to the subcontinent. Australians, cynical as we are, have managed to cope with this; Indians have not, and the result is displays like the 1996 World Cup semi-final. This book is not exactly the Indian version of `Beyond a boundary' but it is well worth a read, especially for the "Anglo" reader.
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