Ashis Nandy - The Tao of Cricket

Beschrijving boek

On Games of Destiny and the Destiny of Games.

Cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British.
Defying history, the author of this delightful and original book shows how a game that was once identified with the British empire, and was the exclusive preserve of the Victorian gentry, is now more South Asian than English. Aside from a brilliant analysis of the philosophy and rituals of the game, the author treat the reader to intriguing psychological profiles of legendary figures of the world of cricket such as W.G. Grace, Douglas Jardine and Ranjitsinhji. He also examines the increasing gamesmanship that is pervading cricket as well as the pressure the modern urban-industrial ethic and mass culture exerts on cricket and the cricketing establishment. As a bonus there are masterly analyses of detective fiction and popular film and their parallels to cricket-as-sport. In conclusion, the author argues that the demise of traditional cricket, a game which is more than a game, may mean the defeat of the idea of the plurality of cultures and the final victory of the modern ideas of nation-state and market.