26 October,2026 09:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Clayton Murzello
Dr Shashi Tharoor, Ayaz Memon, and Rahul Bhattacharya at NCPA on Saturday. PIC COURTESY/MUMBAI LITFEST 2026
A riveting one-hour cricket talk session essentially meant to discuss cricket books inevitably veered to matters beyond book covers and everything in between them at the NCPA on Saturday.
Dr Shashi Tharoor, author Rahul Bhattacharya, and journalist Ayaz Memon were under the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre spotlight at Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2026.
Tharoor, more than just a Congress politician, has a cricketing bent of mind and has authored Shadows Across the Playing Field, a book on India-Pakistan cricket co-written with Pakistani diplomat Shaharyar Khan in 2009.
[popcorn number="Oct 24" desc="Day session was held" class="Default"]
The issue about India and Pakistan not figuring in bilateral Test series since 2007 and in one-day cricket since 2013, came up for discussion with the panel offering perspectives on the wider implications of what cricket is missing.
Each one also had an interesting take on the power the BCCI wields in world cricket. Memon, the moderator of the discussion, stressed on cricket needing a "conscience keeper" and wondered whether "India is prepared to be the vanguard to take up the role."
Tharoor remarked: "We are more dominated by accountants, people counting money than being conscience keepers." Tharoor remembered the late politician Arun Jaitley (who once was very much part of cricket administration as head of Delhi cricket) telling him (since Tharoor spent a good number of years holding various positions at the United Nations), "I want you to understand that India's role in international cricket is analogous to the US's role in the Security Council."
And after Memon recalled MAK Pataudi saying (in December 2010) that the BCCI, instead of being the voice of cricket, was the invoice of cricket, Bhattacharya pointed out how skewed things were in the cricket power distribution. "This centralisation is not fair," he said, adding that India's domination of world cricket is just as distasteful as England and Australia's clout in past eras.
Tharoor put âcricket playing' domination in perspective by reminding his audience that India haven't yet got their hands on the World Test Championship trophy. With T20 teams across the world being acquired by Indian owners, Bhattacharya said it is now "one giant IPL."
And yes, the trio did speak about books to do justice to the subject of the evening, âLines at Length: Cricket books and why we love them.' West Indian author CLR James was spoken of. Ditto English writer Neville Cardus, who, in the opinion of some book lovers, could go over the top during descriptions beyond what took place within the 22 yards.
Tharoor revealed that he had read a bit of Cardus and Australian cricketer-turned-journalist Jack Fingleton but when it came to specific books, he pointed to a novel with a cricket connection by AG Macdonell, Ramachandra Guha's A Corner of a Foreign Field, and Bhattacharya's Pundits from Pakistan, written by his fellow panellist on his 2004 tour to Pakistan.
Bhattacharya brought up departed writers Peter Roebuck's It Never Rains (a diary of the 1983 English season) and Mike Marqusee's Anyone But England (a critical book on the then state of affairs of English cricket) and War Minus the Shooting (a fascinating book on the 1996 World Cup held in the sub-continent) as his favourites. He made a special mention of Christian Ryan, the brilliant Australian writer.
Memon spoke of Pataudi's Tiger's Tale, Sunny Days by Sunil Gavaskar, and Englishman Scyld Berry's Cricket Wallah (an account of England's 1981-82 tour of India). Berry's book also attracted praise from Tharoor and Bhattacharya. If the participants could have their way, they would have gone on discussing cricket literature. But then, stumps must be called even in the most engrossing of last sessions.
