Cricket - A Bridge of Peace

This book is more than a cricketing journal. It is essentially about the impact of this ennobling sport on the minds of people. For the cricket enthusiast, the book provides an insight into the drama, on and off the field that led to the Pakistan Cricket team's triumph in India and disaster in South Africa. Apart from purely cricketing analyses, the book covers issues such as match fixing allegations, neutral umpiring, captaincy and coaching. The author has wandered down memory lane, especially in India, to record some personal impressions. These reminiscences are not egotistic wallowing in nostalgia but are intended to provide the historical backdrop to community relations that he had known in pre-Independence India. In the same spirit, he has described his feelings at visiting Robben Island, Soweto, and the South African Constitutional Court. After a lifetime in diplomacy, attempting, mostly unsuccessfully, to overcome tension, hostility and conflict, the author believes that when played with sportsmanship and in the true spirit of the noble game, cricket can help build bridges of peace all over the world.