NEW DELHI, May 28: A policeman’s casual remarks that ‘girls don’t play cricket’ fired up a young Rachael Heyhoe to pursue the sport as a profession.
The English cricketer later became instrumental in organising the first Women’s World Cup in 1973, two years before the men’s tournament.
Such anecdotes, controversies, innovations, and rebellions are part of a new book that offers cricket enthusiasts a glimpse into cricket’s history in a quote-driven tapestry where the voices of players, rebels, innovators, and legends merge to tell the story of the popular sport.
“Caught Yapping: A History of Cricket in 100 Quotes” by Abhishek Mukherjee and published by Penguin Random House India aims to present readers with a “fresh, inclusive, and modern perspective that goes beyond the usual cliches”.
“For too long, the global history of cricket has been told through England, the birthplace, and Australia, the great rival – the familiar colonial arc.”
“But ‘Caught Yapping’ shatters that mould. It is almost certainly the first book to chronicle cricket’s five-hundred-year journey entirely. It is a radical retelling, a sweeping global history that challenges the dominant narratives and brings forward a diverse, dynamic, and unfiltered chorus from across the cricketing world,” the publishers said in a statement.
Notable events in cricketing history like the bodyline bowling, World Series Cricket, the IPL, are captured in the book through the words of the people who sparked them including Bill Woodfull, Kerry Packer and Lalit Modi.
The book also attempts to address the many curiosities of cricket lovers including the story behind the birth of the BCCI, the colossal role of the Indian Railways in women’s cricket, the invention of googly, baseball’s contributions to swing bowling, the astonishing rise of Afghanistan in the sport, the impact of the sport on mental health, and cricket during crises like the two World Wars, apartheid in South Africa, and Covid-19.
“Caught Yapping” will hit the stands on June 30. (PTI)
