Jun 15, 2005
The Guardian, 15 June With the arrival of the Australians and the prospect of an Ashes summer, cricket suddenly finds itself enjoying near-football-like status in the media. Advance bookings have broken records at grounds across the country. On eBay, tickets for the first day of the Lord’s Test are being auctioned off at ?300 apiece… Read more
Oct 7, 2004
The Week (Cochin), 5 October (BCCI 75th anniversary special issue) In India I saw cricket stripped of its English accoutrements, the pretensions and prejudices the game had acquired in its native land, and played and watched in a different vein. I saw cricket installed at the heart of a burgeoning popular culture, subjected to all… Read more
Oct 1, 2004
The Hindu, 1 October Future historians of the game may come to regard the early years of the 21st century as a golden age for Test cricket, an era resplendent with competitive, dramatic encounters, fired by aggressive batting and captaincy, and graced with a duel for global supremacy between two unique slow bowlers. But many… Read more
Jul 21, 2004
The Guardian, 21 July 2004 There was a time when English cricket lovers would anticipate a visit by the West Indies with a mix of trepidation and excitement – trepidation at what their fast bowlers and batsmen were likely to do to England’s cricketers and excitement at the invigorating spectacle they offered. But when the… Read more
Jul 13, 2004
My Favourite Cricketer: Mike Marqusee on Javed Miandad Wisden Cricket Asia, August 2004 For those of us who prefer a dash of the anti-hero in our heroes, Javed Miandad was never less than a compelling cricketer. Millions in Pakistan gave their hearts to him, while others in England, Australia and India found him supremely irritating…. Read more
Apr 16, 2004
The Hindu, 16 April, 2004 The India-Pakistan series has been nearly everything a committed neutral could ask for. There have been no dead matches and no inflammatory incidents. For the most part, the contest has been closely fought and unpredictable, enriched by a succession of gritty individual performances. In the Test matches we’ve been able to savour… Read more
Mar 14, 2004
India Today – ITPlus, March 2004 I’m grateful to cricket for many things, and one of them is that it got me to Pakistan – with its sufi shrines and elaborately painted trucks, its virtuoso kite flyers and zesty kebabs. The most rewarding travelling combines the purposeful and the aimless. Following a cricket tour in… Read more
Mar 12, 2004
India Today, Special Issue, March 2004 There are all sorts of reasons why I’ll be approaching the India-Pakistan series as a deeply committed neutral. I grew up in New York, moved to England where I became a cricket lover, and later travelled (as often and as widely as I could) in India and Pakistan. I… Read more
Mar 10, 2004
India’s first cricket tour of Pakistan in 15 years brings political opportunity and danger in equal measure The Guardian, 10 March, 2004 India’s superstar cricketers – among the country’s most famous faces – will today visit Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his Delhi residence, to receive his official blessing before boarding a chartered flight… Read more
Feb 25, 2004
Indian Express, February 2004 For some years now, the absence of India-Pakistan cricket has been the hole in the heart of the world game. It deprives cricket-livers of an attractive, exciting fixture and it undermines the sub-continent’s claim to be the game’s progressive new power house. More importantly, it is a constant reminder of the… Read more
