Srikumar Menon

Sort of a Cricket Story Srikumar Menon

Set in the Delhi of the swinging seventies and with the University Cricket Final as its backdrop, Sort of a Cricket Story tells the tale of three friends and their exploits on and off the cricket field culminating in the one grim tragedy that destroys their friendship and their lives. The cricket match, so integral to the plot, is set in the 'present' and ebbs and flows through the book. The story of the three friends, built around the cricket match, their backgrounds, their strengths and failings and their hopes and aspirations, is narrated in a series of flashbacks, seen through the eyes of one of the protagonists. Several vignettes on life in Delhi during the seventies are sprinkled liberally across the book - from Jawa Motorcycles and their silencer scraping turns to ragging in the hostels, from Pushers and druggies to Dabi games in the University coffee house and from the whores to the hoods - the Dadas and the musclemen. Sort of a Cricket Story is a walk down memory lane to the Delhi of that period - the Delhi of the Discos, the music bands, the long hair, the bellbottoms and the hash!