The Self Portrait of a Cricket Fan

Cricket in India is a game played for passionate fans by passionate players. It is also a game run by men who specialise in tarnishing a beautiful game. As a small boy in India, my world of cricket was also a world of comforting clichés. Our writers and radio commentators had a stock of phrases to which they resorted with unblushing repetition. Winning teams were ‘felicitated’ and losers scorned with ‘brickbats’.