Reviving a cricketing literary classic: on ‘War Minus The Shooting’
The Hindu
How two cricket fans, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Mahesh Sethuraman, brought out Mike Marqusee’s timeless classic, with the launch of 81 All Out Publishing
During a recent panel discussion, Michael Atherton, former England cricket captain and one of the game’s most respected commentators and analysts, was asked to list his favourite cricket books. One of those was War Minus The Shooting, by the acclaimed American author, Mike Marqusee.
The author’s nationality, and the title, would give no hints whatsoever that the book is about cricket, let alone sport. Yet, 25 years since its publication, it is still revered by experts and fans as one of the greatest pieces of literature on the game. The book chronicles Marqusee’s travel across India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the 1996 cricket World Cup, with a socio-political context. The actual cricket itself comfortably sits at the backdrop, as the author takes a deep dive into the restless, chaotic political and economic climate in south Asia in the mid 1990s. Marqusee’s prescient views on the cricketing economy, backed by solid research, makes this book a timeless classic.