Mihir Bose has used his gifted storytelling ability wherein he intertwined India’s historical, social and political events with classic incidents from India’s cricket tours over the nine decades, since the country joined the comity of Test-playing nations, in his latest book, The Nine Waves —The Extraordinary Story of Indian Cricket.
Bose is India’s voice in England when it comes to cricket and he very well shoulders that responsibility through his work that goes beyond the clichéd. His passion for cricket is well known, specially being Mumbai bred, and in this book he has dealt with untold incidents, sometimes hearsay, but making it a brilliant read, all the same.
The fruits that Indian cricket is harvesting today were sown in early 2000 when Sourav Ganguly captained India in England. There are many known and unreported incidents that happened at the third Test at Headingley that was to show the emerging new India.
Before the Test, Ganguly who had struck up a friendship with Boycott, invited him to a curry buffet to pick his brains about a ground he knew so well. Fortified by this, the Indians decided that for all the talk of Headingley being a seamer’s paradise, they would play to their strength and picked two spinners, Kumble and Harbhajan. They also decided that, with Wasim Jaffer failing as opener, they needed a new partner for Sehwag. Das was the logical choice. He had made 250 against Essex in the game preceding the Test, but Ganguly and Wright chose Sanjay Bangar who could also be the third seamer. Bangar had been around for a long time, having made his first-class debut in the 1993–1994 season...
...But perhaps the decision that showed the self-belief India was acquiring under Ganguly was that on winning the toss India batted. This was despite the fact that the wicket was green, it was damp and overcast and it seemed ideal for a modern-day English bowler to do what Fred Trueman had done in 1952.There was an audible gasp in the Headingley press box as Ganguly signalled India was batting and much shaking of heads.
This incident clearly describes how Indian captains who came in after Ganguly became assertive — MS Dhoni first and Virat Kohli now — it was something that was needed rather than staying submissive all the while for more than half-a-century since India began playing serious cricket.
What we did not know was that in the Indian dressing room Dravid had argued that he was sick and tired of India on green wickets putting the opposition in when India’s strength was spin. The batting had to be trusted so India could make the opposition chase a target in the fourth innings, Bose writes.
Cricket readers know Bose more as an Englishman with a famous Indian surname, who grew up in India before finding his solace in England. This gives him a heady mix of culture specially while writing about India and England. I may not have had much time to interact with Bose during whatever cricket I have covered, but I distinctly remember meeting him at the Chinnaswamy Stadium press box. It was 2011 World Cup group stage match between India and England — the match was famously tied and later India went on to win the World Cup.
We were allotted seats next to each other thanks to Sami Ul-Hasan, the then ICC Head of Media and Communication. As the match meandered into a gripping one, I could sense a bit of dejection on Bose’s face whenever an English wicket fell. My first impression was that he was being more British than the England fans. I have no idea what made me glance, to my left, to see his laptop screen on which he was accessing something very unfamiliar.
He was checking Ladbrokes or William Hill — the British betting syndicates and he was putting bets online from Chinnaswamy press box — and on what? I thought it has to be the match we were watching since he was in best position to speculate and bet.
I had no gall to ask him first, but he realised my predicament. “I am betting on a British athletics event,” Bose offered an explanation to his dejection for having lost some pounds. This shows Bose is more human as any of us. Celebrated writer he may be, but to indulge in something like this is human — even while a serious match was at hand. These knick-knacks that Bose has added to his storyline make the book utterly readable.
