This is a refreshingly honest and absorbing account of a remarkable period in Indian cricket presented by perhaps India’s most successful coach. John Wright has, of course, resisted the temptation of glorifying his own role in the success of the team, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. The book is well written, and like his own batting as one of New Zealand’s best batsmen in recent times, Wright’s articulation is elegant and attractive. It is sprinkled with humour and several anecdotes, which make this volume interesting even for those who know little about cricket beyond casual exposure to the extensive TV coverage of the game. Samples of Wright’s sense of humour are extensive, such as his account of how after he retired from cricket and took up an uninspiring job in the retail section of a major New Zealand company, he noted, “I discovered I was good at two things: driving a fork lift and hiding from customers.”

Those who watch cricket in India take for granted the excitement and hysterical pitch the game generates, but coming from the pen of a foreigner, this reality inspires a sense of amazement. Hence, Wright pledges that when he gets back to watching cricket for pleasure, “I won’t bother going to Lords; I’ll go back to India.” Through Wright’s description of events and anecdotes, the reader can draw subtle conclusions about the unhealthy management of cricket in India, which contrasts so starkly with the tumultuous applause the game and its leading exponents receive from a doting public of over a billion Indians. Mismanagement by the BCCI is writ in the manner in which Wright’s own contract was kept hanging even while he had assumed charge as coach of the Indian team and plunged into his responsibilities full scale, or in the fact that the computer analyst for the team, who obviously has to remain in close proximity with the coach and the team, had to stay in another hotel because his per diem allowance was lower than that of the rest. The political frailties of the system can also be gleaned from the fact that managers of the Indian team keep passing through revolving doors. Wright found Chetan Chauhan an excellent manager, but like all those before him, he was replaced by a variety of diverse individuals ranging from a member of Parliament, a doctor, an owner of a trucking company, a professor of chemistry to a fighter pilot, among others.

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