Pitching In With a Journal of Love

Javed Akhtar | Arab News

Cricket at Fever Pitch is a collection of Khalid A-H Ansari’s writings spanning nearly four decades. They first appeared in his immensely popular column, “Hitting Out,” in Sportsweek and then in Mid Day in the equally popular, “Khalidoscope.” They chronicle India’s cricketing triumphs and tribulations since 1968 by one who had a ringside seat. Khalid is known for his pioneering work in Indian journalism. He started Sportsweek in 1968 when the Sports & Pastime of the Hindu group had already folded after a very successful but financially unviable run. Then in 1979, he launched Mid Day, even though Bombay already had two evening papers — the Evening News of the Times group and the Bulletin of the Free Press Journal. For over a decade Sportsweek was the only specialized periodical in India. It was eagerly read by fans, players and sports administrators alike. It covered all major sports events — at home and abroad. Mid Day broke fresh ground in many ways. Bombayites took it to heart and the rest, as they say, is part of journalistic folklore. Khalid used his hard-hitting style to champion the cause of sports and sportsmen. He raised his voice against injustice and castigated erring sports officials. Nobody — however high and mighty — escaped though it was always constructive criticism which was well deserved. Most of them mended their ways. Others had to pay the penalty for refusing to see reason. Over the long period of almost 40 years, Khalid has established a reputation for being fair, just and sincere through his writings. In his two tenures as a member of the now defunct government body All India Council of Sports, Khalid worked diligently to better the lot of sportsmen through the promotion of sports, especially various ignored indigenous disciplines. The national honor of Padmashri was a deserving reward that Khalid won for his service to sports and sportsmen. Apart from other innovations, Khalid set the trend by asking top current sportsmen to contribute articles to Sportsweek and Mid Day. Two such leading writers who readily come to mind are world billiards champion Michael Ferreira and legendary cricket opener and captain Sunil Gavaskar. He paid Gavaskar a rupee a word, a princely sum considering what other top writers were being paid at that time. Incidentally, Gavaskar has also written the foreword for “Cricket at Fever Pitch” in which he narrates his first meeting with Khalid and how the trust and friendship between the two has grown over the years. The Little Master hasn’t lost his sense of humor as he writes, “Khalid won me over as soon as he praised my mother’s cooking for the snacks she had prepared and that was the beginning of a friendship which has seen both of us lose a fair bit of hair, though of course he hasn’t even bothered to color his.” The monumental and Herculean task of going through the huge archive of Khalid’s articles was entrusted to the reliable and rock solid Mid Day Sports Editor Clayton Murzello. Clayton has grown up reading and collecting Sportsweek copies. The vagaries of weather and termites, coupled with several shifts of office premises, rendered the Sportsweek archives useless and so Clayton’s own priceless collection came in handy. He had to sift through a mountain of material from Sportsweek and Mid Day but he has done a good job and the end product shows that he has chosen well. Instead of the chronological order in which they appeared, the articles have been divided into different sections — personalities, issues, events and miscellaneous — to keep the readers’ interest. From Ajit Wadekar’s heady triumphs in the West Indies (1971) and England (1974) to the pinnacle of the 1983 World Cup triumph and the depths of despair cricket plunged into due to the match-fixing scandal, are all there. So also is the shame of Melbourne when Trevor Chappell sent the underarm delivery against New Zealand. Top administrators, including former International Cricket Council and Indian cricket board chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, have been blasted for their sins of omission and commission. In the miscellaneous section, humor stories — one about the late commentator Jasdev Singh and another concerning former captain M.A.K. Pataudi’s “ghost” antics with former Times of India Sports Editor K.N. Prabhu and the third concerning a novice Hindi cricket commentator in Australia — remind one of the good old days when Khalid regaled guests at his house parties by narrating them in his inimitable style. Unfortunately the book is limited only to Khalid’s cricket writings. There is a lot more he has written about other sports. He has also directed his attention to social and civic issues so perhaps all that can be put together in another book. An interesting section of the book consists of appreciative comments from a number of cricketers and administrators. As Khalid admits in the acknowledgements, “Some of them sound like obituaries and, in all sincerity, I am not sure I deserve them.” This reflects a sense of modesty, almost a self-effacing trait, that is so typical of the man. Khalid still covers cricket the world over with the energy and enthusiasm of a cub reporter. He was recently in the West Indies watching and reporting as Rahul Dravid’s Cricket India team recorded a historic series triumph. He also admits, “Looking back, from time to time I have been strident in my criticism of some of them that stemmed out of exuberance and youthful earnestness evident in my earlier writings.” The book is a must for all cricket lovers, especially those who have lived abroad and missed the action at home. It is published by Popular Prakashan and costs Rs. 350. (info@popularprakashan.com) pp.290.