Cricket Beyond the Bazaar

Description

With fervour, warmth and humour, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar examines Australian cricket on the Indian subcontinent, focusing on the triumphs and controversies of the last 10 years. Leading cricket writer Mike Coward gives the first intimate eyewitness account of the Madras tied Test, the 1987 World Cup and the Australian team's threatened walkout of Pakistan in 1988. He also recalls earlier visits by Australian cricketers and provides a fascinating social reconstruction of the historic tour by the Maharaja of Patiala's team of Australian cricketers led by Jack Ryder and Charlie Macartney in 1935-36. The lavish hospitality of princes and maharajas at that time has been echoed in the last decade by the rapturous reception everyday Indians and Pakistanis extend to visiting Australian teams. The subcontinent is a region close to Mike Coward's heart. His colourful tales of life in India and Pakistan along with amusing descriptions of the pleasures and problems awaiting cricketers and journalists on tour are richly interwoven with on-field dramas. This book will appeal to the followers of both Test cricket and the limited-over game and will enhance any cricket library.

Mike Coward, a Sydney-based freelance journalist and commentator, has written about international cricket for various publications in Australia, India and England for 20 years. Formerly the chief cricket writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Advertiser, Adelaide and a senior sports writer with The Age, Melbourne, he made five visits to the Indian subcontinent with Australian teams in the 1980s.