Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780198843139)

'Cricket is an Indian game accidentally invented by the English, ' it has famously been said. Today, the Indian cricket team is a powerful national symbol, a unifying force in a country riven by conflicts. But India was represented by a cricket team long before it became an independent nation.

Drawing on an unparalleled range of original archival sources, Cricket Country is the story of the first 'All India' cricket tour of Great Britain and Ireland. It is also the extraordinary tale of how the idea of India took shape on the cricket field in the high noon of empire. Conceived by an unlikely coalition of colonial and local elites, it took twelve years and three failed attempts before an 'Indian' cricket team made its debut on the playing fields of imperial Britain.

This historic tour, which took place against the backdrop of revolutionary politics in the Edwardian era, featured an improbable cast of characters. The team龝 young captain was the newly enthroned ruler of a powerful Sikh state. The other cricketers were chosen on the basis of their religious identity. Remarkably, for the day, two of the players were Dalits.

Over the course of the blazing Coronation summer of 1911, these Indians participated in a collective enterprise that epitomizes the way in which sport -- and above all cricket -- helped fashion the imagined communities of both empire and nation.

Author: Prashant Kidambi
ISBN-10: 0198843135
ISBN-13: 9780198843139
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2019
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.70d