The Roar was started as a website back in 2007 to give a voice to the thousands of people who did not have a voice in expressing their views, opinions and experiences of the issues and events taking place on and off the sporting fields.
The name of the site, The Roar, was intended to express the roar of the crowd, as opposed to the curated roar from the mainstream media which rarely involved supporters of teams and lovers of sports in their articles and videos.
Within ten years The Roar has become a powerhouse for generating copy and videos on all matters sporting.
Each week about 90,000 words are generated on The Roar, a sort of sporting equivalent to the words tally in War and Peace.
These words represent the views, experiences and opinions of many writers who, before The Roar came into existence, never had a chance to publish anything they had on their minds.
Among this cohort of new voices on The Roar is Anindya Dutta, a businessman who lives in Singapore, who has recently published his first book, “A Gentleman’s Game: Reflections on Cricket History”.
The book comprises 15 essays and an appendix of scoreboards relating to some of the events described in these essays.
The essays range from a fascinating exposure of the curious life of the great Ranji (K.S. Ranjitsinhji: The Maharaja of Eloquence), to size and batting ability (Have fat, can bat), two intriguing first-Test bowling performances (A tale of two debuts: The Banerjee-Warne story), essays on Keith Miller and his war experiences, a fabulous declaration by Don Bradman, and a comparison between the “two greatest wicket-keepers”, Godfrey Evans and Don Tallon.
All these essays and the others are full of information and insights that will appeal to lovers of the ‘gentleman’s game’. I pride myself, for instance, to have read virtually all the important cricket books published in the past 40 years or so. But there are many stories and details in Anindya’s essays that intrigued me, that I found fascinating and explained matters I had wondered about in previous readings.
I found myself, as I read through the essays, underlining many paragraphs as a reminder of their import. So many paragraphs were subjected to this underlining that sometimes entire pages seemed to have been given the highlighter treatment.
Take, for instance, the first essay in the collection: “K.S. Ranjisinhji: The Maharaja of Elegance – and of Nawanagar”.
The essay is a tour de force. It starts with a quote from Ranji, still valid today, about the best way to bat: “Find out where the ball is, get there: hit it.”
This quote is followed by two photos of Ranji.
The first shows him making a leg glance. In the text, the author points out that Ranji was the batsman who brought leg-side shots into the batting method:
“Ranji, single-handedly, pioneered the leg-side game. Over three glorious days of an English summer in 1896, at Old Trafford, Ranji scored 62 and 154, with a majority of his runs coming on the leg-side, through a stroke that would quaintly be named ‘the glance’.”
These two masterpiece innings were created in Ranji’s first Test.
There was significant opposition to Ranji being selected for further Tests, especially for those in Australia, because of the feelings among cricket officials, including Lord Harris, that “if England could not win without resorting to the assistance of coloured individuals of Asiaticextraction it had better devote its skills to marbles”.
There were also calls for Ranji’s supporters to be expelled from the MCC for “having the disgusting degeneracy to praise a dirty black”.
So Ranji’s Test career spanned only six years and 15 Tests, all played against Australia, scoring almost 1000 runs at an average of 44.95 with two centuries and six fifties.
The author does not go into this record in great detail but, in my view, this average compared with those of great batsmen in the era of uncovered pitches would convert to something near enough to 60 in modern times.
The second photo shows Ranji dressed as a Jam Sahib, the title given to the ruling prince of Nawanagar.
These two themes, Ranji the great, innovating batsman of his day, and Ranji the erstwhile, probably pretend Indian prince, are played throughout the essay rather like a great batsman exploring different ways to dispatch the ball to the boundary.
The story of Ranji struggling to establish his credentials as Prince Ranjitsinhji, a title he had no rights to, is a fascinating tale that involves Indian princely politics and intrigues not usually related to him by his adoring admirers like English cricket writer Neville Cardus.
The essay ends on a mysterious note: “Ranji would eventually become the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar when Jassaji (his rival and real heir) died of a mysterious illness for which no aspersions were cast on possible beneficiaries, although certain questions were raised.”
I would like Anindya Dutta to pursue this lead and find out how valid the “certain questions” were.
In his introduction, the author describes how he came to write on The Roar: “A couple of years ago, after several heated exchanges with fellow group members, I decided to write an opinion piece on cricket on an issue I felt strongly about … I sent it off to an Australian website The Roar where a fellow crazy, Ritesh Misra, had just published an article.
“The next morning to my surprise, The Roar had carried the article. What was most gratifying was the response from readers on The Roar…”
One of those responding was Kersi Meher-Homji, described by Anindya Dutta as “one of the world’s great cricket historians and the author of 14 books on cricket”.
Kersi was also one of the first people on The Roar. His writings gave the site a respectability, a place where good argument could be expressed in a way that provided light rather than heat on the issue under discussion.
Kersi has provided a foreword where he praises Anindya Dutta as “a new name” among the dwindling band of modern cricket writers of note: “I read an article by a new name on The Roar… It was on spell-binding bowling spells in Test cricket by Anindya Dutta and I was impressed. Wow, this is something different as the article combined history, statistics and sheer excitement.”
I would endorse this judgment from Kersi. This is a cricket book full of great delights by an enthusiast who has an eye, like a master batsman, to make telling strokes to push his stories along.
Writing a book, to my mind, is the equivalent in cricket of making a century. Anindya Dutta’s century, to continue this analogy, has been made in the first-class arena. Well played!
The Kindle Ebook is available on Amazon Australia for A$4.49. The paperback is available on Amazon US at $US5.99 and Amazon UK at £4.99.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks so much Ronan! Really appreciate the kind words and the interactions with you on Roar.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Congratulations Anindya, you're a terrific contributor to The Roar.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Kersi - Thanks a lot. You have been a rock of support and i shall always be grateful for that. The next book will hopefully be out in the coming months. Looks like I have a lot of expectations to live up to! That is daunting, encouraging and invigorating, all at the same time! Cheers.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks so much Venkat! That is high praise indeed and I am so glad you enjoyed the book so much. It is truly heartwarming and encouraging for an author to see his readers enjoy his work.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks so much Ritesh! The kind words are much appreciated.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks Stu. It should be easy to find. Among cricket books it's top of the Bestseller list today on Amazon Australia when I last checked. Here is the link. Hope you enjoy it. https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B0725VZJFQ/ Cheers
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Hi Anindya, You deserve all the praise from Spiro and other commenters. You have earned it, mate. All the best for your next book. Can hardly wait.
Venkat
Guest
Anindya Dutta has in his first book “A Gentleman’s Game;Reflections on Cricket History” brought forth so many events of cricketing history which I honestly did not know, existed. To put it simply, this book is a supermarket of cricketing facts and events. My first brush with cricket was getting the commentary live on the big radio that we had. This was in the mid seventies, when we were playing the mighty Windies. After that it has always been facts and figures, biographies and autobiographies. Anindya’s book is a wonderful breath of fresh air. The chapter on Keith Miller for instance brought out the tears in me..... “The year was 1945, the war had just ended in Europe and everyone was looking for ways to get back to normal life quickly. In this scenario, a series of 5 first class matches, called the Victory Tests were played between the Australian services XI and England, and the teams met for the first of the three day matches at Lord’s on May 19,1945........................ ..................But the most poignant moment of the match came when Australian airman Graham Williams walked out to bat at No.9 with Miller batting on hundred at the other end. In an interview later, Miller was to recall the scene: “He was given a great ovation that compares with anything ever given Bradman, Lillee or Richards. But it was not the sort of clapping and cheering that greets a hundred. This is different. Everyone stood up. They all knew about Graham’s captivity. He was a big fella, but he was gaunt from his experience, and he just walked round for a while as if in a trance.” He then went on to say, “It was almost orchestral in its sound and feeling. Whenever I think of it, tears still come to my eyes.” Two weeks before this match, Williams had been freed from a German POW camp after 4 years of captivity. He had been captured early in the war when his plane crashed in the Middle East and had survived on starvation rations.he was 31 kgs below his pre-War bodyweight, when he walked out to the middle at Lords. He was so weak that he had to be given glucose between overs. He was to score 53 runs at a-run- a-ball and take 2 wickets bowling 40 overs in that first match.......................... Thanks Anindya for giving me these wonderful hours I spent in finishing the book..... Waiting for the next, and hoping that the wait wouldn’t be long.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Super Review Spiro of a super book and thanks for mentioning me. That itself is an encouragement. For me Roar has been a fascinating journey and it was a privilege to write as a rookie and get a "Promotion" to Pro and a further elevation as Guru I find it highly creditable that the author has to an extent explained some matters which Spiro after 40 years of detailed "research" had wondered about. He has also raised "certain questions" about Ranji mentioned by the author and wants him to pursue the lead. I am sure it will be done and this too will be explained. Enjiyed the book, Enjoyed Kersi's foreword and now Spiro's review. As is said in India "Ye dil maange more". ( The heart demands more) I am sure Anindya will churn up more books combining history, statistics and excitement
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks Naresh. It is because of the love and encouragement from readers like you that I continue to write and dig deeper! Its a self fulfilling prophecy in many ways!
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Johnno - Thanks so much for the encouragement and the kind words! Its truly heart warming to receive the appreciation. Indeed, that is what keeps me going. I hope you manage to download a copy and have a read. If you don't use a kindle normally, I would suggest reading it on read.amazon.com on your computer. It reads just like an article and perhaps even better than on a kindle. Would love to have your feedback when you are done. The next one (out later this year) will be available in physical form in Australia, I promise!
Johnno
Guest
Your one of my favourite Roar writers, you look at history and also the more obscure but often important stuff that gets ignored by the mainstream media often, "off the beaten track" stuff I like these type of articles and style. It's original and thought provoking and shows theres an endless world out there of information that no one hears about often, keep up the good work mate.
Naresh Sadasivan
Guest
Excellent book, like I mentioned elsewhere as well, Anindya. The nuggets of info you dug out about some characters and events made it truly worthwhile.
Stu
Guest
Thanks for alerting me to this book. I'm off to hunt for it now and look forward to reading it.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thank you Geoff. I hope you enjoy it! The reviews on different Amazon sites don't unfortunately get collated, as there are some heart warming (for me!) reviews on the UK and India site as well. Heartening to know people are enjoying it.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Thanks Spiro and best wishes Anindya with the book. You've got a couple of great reviews up on Amazon already and I look forward to reading it.
megan
Guest
Good to see the Roar is encouraging 'comments and discussions'. The comments and discussions after most Roar rugby pieces are interesting, often funny and sometimes enlightening. May the Roar survive and prosper
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thank you so much Spiro, for the kind words! I am so glad you enjoyed the book, and I hope the readers of Roar will as well. The Roar community has been an important part of my continuing evolution as a writer. The comments and discussions here on articles are more relevant, insightful and heated (to the most part in a constructive way) than on any other sports website I write on, or visit. I hope many will read this book, as it is the support and encouragement of Roar readers to a large extent, that has been the fuel that has stoked my creative fires within.