Review: The Great Indian Cricket Circus

Did you know that Azharuddin holds the record for scoring three consecutive centuries in the first three Tests of his career? Or that Sachin has a mango variety named after him? And how's this one - Gavaskar has 4 cricket stadiums/fields named after him worldwide. The Great Indian cricket circus brings you many such fascinating trivia and stories from the world of Indian cricket.

It is not your regular cricket book. It doesn't have a plot or storyline or a journey. There are a total of 52 chapters. Cricket and fiction, unusual cricket contests, cricketers who acted in movies among others - covering a century of India cricket history. While some chapters provide new facts, others break the existing myths. You also get to know about crazy fan stories and off-the field incidents. 

As much as fun the book is, the authors had an incredibly tough job to put it together. The amount of research and fact-checking is astounding. And that is primarily because of the collective expertise of the writers - Joy Bhattacharya and Abhishek Mukherjee. As you sift through pages of the book, you feel you know so little about the game you have been bragging about. It's easy to pick this book but difficult to put it down.

The book tells you, rather reminds you. Cricket in India is deeply rooted in almost every sphere of our lives. It is so vast that you can never get enough of it.

Should you get the book? The answer is in affirmative.

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