ss-border terrorism might have cast a shadow over India-Pakistan cricketing ties, but matches in neutral venues are still possible says Shashi Tharoor

The Indian Minister of State for External Affairs spent much of his youth outside the country. Indeed, that very fact contributes to Shashi Tharoor’s cosmopolitan appeal. Even when he attends a book launch, his unaffected, pleasing demeanor assures us that though he has been to the best places in the world, though he must be (at best) tolerating us, he would be here rather than anywhere else.

But there is something else that Tharoor owes to his years spent away from home— his enduring passion for cricket. “When I was in the US, Geneva or any other country where cricket was not popular, there was no means through which I would get any cricket new from the subcontinent. There was no internet and the local media wouldn’t even cover cricket matches. That would fuel my desire even more. My father had to mail video cassette recordings of the matches,” remembers Shashi Tharoor who attended the launch of his book Shadows Across the Playing Field at The Park last Saturday.

The book was co-authored by Shaharyar Khan (former Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board), and approaches the cricketing history of India and Pakistan through two different perspectives, that of an insider and that of an outsider. “Mine is the outsider’s perspective. I talk about the game as a diligent follower. While Shaharyar Khan’s version is more personal, more anecdotal,” says Tharoor.

... contd.