|  | 
 Cricket: A Bridge of Peace
Product Details:
Author: Shaharyar M. Khan | ISBN: 0-19-597836-6 | Format: Hardcover | Pages: 238 | Weight: 1.20 lbs | Pub. Date: 2005 | Publisher: Oxford University Press
DESCRIPTION
"Shoaib’s starry tantrums, Waqar’s ineffective captaincy, Inzamam’s descent into a batting nightmare and the generally fractious nature of the tour are all faithfully documented."
This book was written when the author was the manager of the Pakistan cricket team during its tour of India in 1999 and the World Cup in South Africa in 2003. The author has focused on the role of cricket as a bridge of peace within a tortured society-South Africa-and between hostile neighbours-Pakistan and India. It also chronicles the matches on the two tours, drawing cricketing conclusions from Pakistan’s success in India and its failure at the World Cup. As an experienced diplomat and cricket enthusiast, Shaharyar Khan is eminently qualified to analyze the role of cricket in politics and diplomacy, and its moulding influence in public attitudes.
In December 2003, Shaharyar Khan was appointed Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. During March and April 2004 the momentous series between Pakistan and India took place, and in an epilogue to this book the author chronicles the events of that series. His conclusion now is the same as then; that cricket does act as a bridge of peace.
HERALD REVIEW
"Shaharyar Khan’s 'Cricket: A Bridge of Peace' may not yet be a classic but it clearly transcends standard cricket offerings in Pakistan. Given the paucity of literature that isn’t merely a statistical overview of Test cricket history, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman’s diary written during two tours as team manager is welcome relief. Granted, it is
another tour diary. But the
extraordinary nature of the tours
Khan describes — the first to India in
the run-up to Kargil and the second
to post-apartheid South Africa
during the 2003 World Cup - offers
fair scope for analysing more than
what unfolded on the field. And for
the most, the book delivers.
It helps
that Pakistan’s trek to India in early
1999, its first full tour in 13 years,
saw some thrilling cricket and was
as much a social, political and cultural event as it was a sporting
one. Khan, with his urbane
demeanour and diplomatic
background, was appointed
manager specifically for that tour.
And his public relations skills
coupled with Wasim Akram’s
refreshingly open captaincy were
among the reasons for the side’s
stupendous success, both on and
off the field.
Intelligently interspersing match narratives played in various cities with reflections on subcontinental history, Khan unravels an engaging and lively travelogue. Although he is unable to shake off his diplomatic training, it is laudable that Khan’s account strives beyond the realm of sporting combat. Additionally, the match reporting is also refreshingly different as Khan makes a sincere effort to add colour and lyricism to the standard stockpile of commentary and facts.
Unfortunately, the second half of the book tracing the disastrous World Cup is less a reflection of a troubled country coming to terms with a disturbed past and more a chronicle of a team’s demise foretold. Khan writes about the strife that plagued the team off the field. Shoaib’s starry tantrums, Waqar’s ineffective captaincy, Inzamam’s descent into a batting nightmare and the generally fractious nature of the tour are all faithfully documented.
Once again, though, Khan’s diplomatic instincts prevent him from being as forthcoming as the reader would hope. But every so often, there is a telling, if not always deliberate, insight into the problems faced by Pakistani cricket.
At a social function in Johannesburg, for instance, one of the players asks Khan “Who this Mandela is?” (At his tactful best, Khan drops no names as he recounts the anecdote.) Besides alluding to the team’s ignorance, the book also confirms its propensity for overt bureaucracy. One such occasion occurs during the World Cup, when Khan admits to being concerned that a nine-man non-playing delegation accompanied the squad, forcing him to form no less than five committees to handle matters such as gifts, equipment, autographs, correspondence and entertainment.
Overall, 'A Bridge of Peace' is an articulate and valuable addition to local cricket literature that strives to be different and look beyond the immediate scope of the game." - Osman Samiuddin, Herald, March 2005
|
|
