173. Cricket and the Sub-Continent

War Minus the Shooting,talks about the 1996 Cricket World Cup and was published in 1998. Combining personal reflection and social observation, this work paints a complex portrait of a sub-continent in ferment, set against the backdrop of the 1996 cricket World Cup, the most extravagant and controversial event in the long history of the game. The book delves into the dilemmas that dog modern cricket - ball-tampering, biased umpires, media moguls and sponsors, race and national identity, gambling syndicates, and much more. In this conversation that took place in December 2021 during the Bangalore Literature Festival at Bangalore international Centre, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Sharda Ugra discuss Mike Marquesee and the revival of the book as the event it covers turned 25.