Announcing a book project
As some of my remaining readers on this blog and over at Different Strokes will have noticed, my posting frequency has fallen off. I have a very good excuse for this. I have started a book project and have signed a contract with Harper Collins (the book is due with the publishers next year - I expect it to be released in early 2012). My editor in this enterprise is VK Karthika, a smart and perceptive editor who is, luckily for me, a cricket fan (after working for Penguin for many years, she moved to Harper a couple of years ago; I was pointed to her by both Mukul Kesavan and Ramachandra Guha as being the right editor to work with on my book). Needless to say I'm delighted on many counts: to be able to develop some thoughts on this great game at some length, and to be working with a sympathetic editor and a good publishing house.
The book's agenda is ostensibly straightforward but in reality, quite complicated. To be glib about it, the book will be my take on where cricket is going in this day and age. I'm planning to write a brief history of recent changes and try and extrapolate/project/prognosticate - all of it. The problem is that cricket is changing so fast, I'll be, to use Gideon Haigh's words, "chasing it down the street with a pen and notebook in hand."
As of now, I've started putting together some notes and have a rough idea of the chapter-wise breakdown: the impact and continuing role of technology in cricket, the change from nation-based cricket to professional franchises, the evolution of the game's formats (including speculation about world cups and test championships), the new nationalism online, and lastly the game's new masters, the BCCI and Indian cricket. I like writing on cricket, of course, but first and foremost, I'm a fan, and I hope that will come through.
I'll post part of the book's current synopsis to the blog tomorrow. Thoughts and comments welcome.
The book's agenda is ostensibly straightforward but in reality, quite complicated. To be glib about it, the book will be my take on where cricket is going in this day and age. I'm planning to write a brief history of recent changes and try and extrapolate/project/prognosticate - all of it. The problem is that cricket is changing so fast, I'll be, to use Gideon Haigh's words, "chasing it down the street with a pen and notebook in hand."
As of now, I've started putting together some notes and have a rough idea of the chapter-wise breakdown: the impact and continuing role of technology in cricket, the change from nation-based cricket to professional franchises, the evolution of the game's formats (including speculation about world cups and test championships), the new nationalism online, and lastly the game's new masters, the BCCI and Indian cricket. I like writing on cricket, of course, but first and foremost, I'm a fan, and I hope that will come through.
I'll post part of the book's current synopsis to the blog tomorrow. Thoughts and comments welcome.
Labels: cricket books
posted by Samir Chopra at 7:43 AM
10 Comments:
Looking forward to it, Samir... and all the very best to you!
Thanks Shridhar - I'm looking forward to working on it and getting it done!
Good stuff Samir, I'm sure there will be at least one chapter on Dilli.
For some unfathomable reason the whole world turned green when I read this. I swear I am not jealous! Not one bit, no sir. :-)
Good luck and, needless to say, I am looking forward to it. Save some space for Delhi's mammoth 700-plus run chase in the Ranji Trophy final and the absurd "first inning" rule of determining winners.
NC: Thanks very much.
JQ: Thanks :) I'll give the first-innings rule a good beating. Though I have to admit, that final was quite something when it happened, because of the way it turned into a straight run-chase.
And yes, Delhi has to figure in there somewhere! How can it not?
I think I speak for all cricket loving academics everywhere when I say 1) congratulations and 2) you lucky bastard!
Make sure you put some modal logic in it, and lots of Kant jokes.
Dom: Thanks very much! I intend a full treatment of the transcendental deduction as employed by the UDRS, as well as an extended take on a possible worlds semantics for assessing the truth of spot-fixing claims.
I know the Dilli connection is inevitable, especially for that match. It brought Mohinder Amarnath into prominence for his calmness and guts and set the stage for his astonishing return to the Indian team. It was also my first proper brush with cricket on my own (the first time I listened to radio commentary without my grandfather or brother for company) and a big reason for my obsession with the longest form of the game.
Good luck Samir. Looking forward to the release.
SB: Thanks for the wishes; I can't wait for the release too!
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