The Blog of Small Things

Name : The Nine Waves Author : Mihir Bose Year of Publication : 2019 Genre : Non-fiction , Cricket Rating : *** (3 stars out of 5) Mihir Bose authored an authoritative history of Indian cricket in 1990 and almost three decades later, has written this anecdotal revisit structured chronologically in the form of nine "waves". Unlike the scholarly 1990 work, this one is a journalist's take-full of juicy gossip and fresh insights (Sample : Chapter 7 which argues how Nehru "saved" Indian cricket). From Ranjitsinhji to Prithvi Shaw,  the canvas is vast but the author manages to tell a cohesive tale despite poor factcheck and below-average editing.

Name : Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians Author : Boria Majumdar     Year of Publication : 2019     Genre : Non-fiction , Cricket    Rating : **(2  stars out of 5) Boria Majumdar is a competent historian and the theme he chooses - interplay of cricket and politics through Indian history- is also interesting. But the author falters in coming up with a template to deal with the multiple stories. He covers Kolkata 2001 and the next chapter is on how Sepoy cricket moulded nationalism in 1850s. There are chapters on Ranjitsinhji and Lala Amarnath sandwiched between World cup 2011 and Kohli's new India. Majumdar is the head priest who has exclusive access to all the Gods alluded to in the title but the prayer he sings could have been more coherent and structured.

Name : On fire Author : Ben Stokes     Year of Publication : 2020     Genre : Non-fiction , Cricket    Rating : ***(3  stars out of 5) Ben Stokes relives the remarkable 2019 summer in a "match report" format . He remained the last man standing in two matches for the ages - the World Cup final ( which England won but New Zealand did not lose) and the Headingley one wicket win ( which reiterated that Test Cricket ,despite being on a ventilator for long, is capable of showing some glorious signs of life). The account is politically correct and steers clear of controversy thus underlining his aspirations for England captaincy in the near future. A book which becomes readable simply because of the events described.