Book Review
Rama Gaind
By Rama Gaind
PS News Books

Cricket Conflicts and Controversies
   By Kersi Meher-Homji (New Holland, $29.95, softcover, 220 pages)

Cricket, like football, rugby league and boxing, does not embody all that is decent and law-abiding, but this book “accurately” records cricket’s conflicts and controversies and puts them in historic perspective.
   Author and biographer Kersi Meher-Homji also successfully charts the “long-term effect these unsavoury” events have had on the game’s “evolution”.
Cricket Conflicts and Controversies by Kersi Meher-Homji.
Cricket Conflicts and Controversies by
Kersi Meher-Homji.
   Cricket certainly does not exemplify all that is noble as the past few decades have witnessed many disputes and disagreements, on-field clashes and behind-the-scene drama and trauma.
   Former Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell elaborates in the foreword that cricket has had admirable champions and characters, as well as, the odd villain. Touching on some of the debates that he’s been close to, Chappell makes a valid point: sometimes, emotion can cloud the real story.  
   Controversy has been ever-present since the first test was played in 1877, with the ‘gentle’ game revealing its dim, gloomy side long before the Bodyline furore of 1932-33, the Bollyline series of 2007-08—and beyond.
   Chapters include the World Series Cricket revolution; the famous underarm incident; how the IPL sizzled and fizzled; how the Doliveira affair dismantled apartheid; and the tragedies of Woolmer and Roebuck.
   A self-confessed cricket tragic, Kersi leads us through the chucking and ball-tampering accusations, blame of match-fixing, the on-field kicking, bribery and drug-taking allegations.
   He delivers with remarkable acuity!
Edition 346, 29 January 2013

To find out more about Rama Gaind click here.
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