To understand modern India, one must look at the business of cricket within the country. When Lalit Modi--an Indian businessman with a criminal record, a history of failed business ventures, and a reputation for audacious deal making--created a Twenty20 cricket league in India in 2008, the odds were stacked against him. International cricket was still controlled from London, where they played the long, slow game of Test cricket by the old rules. Indians had traditionally underperformed in the sport but the game remained a national passion. Adopting the highly commercial American model of sporting tournaments, and throwing scantily clad western cheerleaders into the mix, Modi gave himself three months to succeed. And succeed he did--dazzlingly--before he and his league crashed to earth amid astonishing scandal and corruption. The emergence of the IPL is a remarkable tale. Cricket is at the heart of the miracle that is modern India. As a business, it represents everything that is most dynamic and entrepreneurial about the country's economic boom, including the industrious and aspiring middle-class consumers who are driving it. The IPL also reveals, perhaps to an unprecedented degree, the corrupt, back-scratching, and nepotistic way in which India is run. A truly original work by a brilliant journalist, The Great Tamasha* makes the complexity of modern India--its aspiration and optimism straining against tradition and corruption--accessible like no other book has. *Tamasha: a Hindi world meaning "a spectacle."

International cricket is being contaminated by crooked players, ruthless gamblers and bent officials. This staggering catalogue of revelations exposes appalling scandals involving the biggest names in the sport. Often under enormous pressure from gambling gangs who threaten serious physical harm and even abduction if their orders are not carried out, many of them have frequently and deliberately cheated. These riveting revelations will shock and disgust any fan and honest player, from those in school elevens and local clubs, right up to the sportsmen who play at county and international levels. Caught Out shines the light upon the most extraordinary cricketing tales, including the tragic death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, whose body was discovered in his hotel room; the disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje, who was killed in a plane crash in 2002; the terrified Pakistan wicket-keeper who was forced to seek asylum in Britain after fleeing angry bookmakers; and how slippery England literally licked the Aussies with Murray Mints to bag the Ashes. Icons are names and shamed in a wealth of disclosures that cover match fixing, spot fixing, cocaine smuggling, death threats, kidnapping, ferocious betting, and even high-class prostitutes, who are paraded as additional rewards for players who cheat at the behest of illegal bookmakers.

How illegal cash is destroying the fabric of cricket Who killed Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer? Have players from the national squad been involved in match-fixing? Is suspending IPL teams punishment enough for erring franchise owners? Should betting be made legal in India as advised by the Lodha Committee? From S. Sreesanth to Chris Cairns, Lalit Modi to N. Srinivasan, Hamid Cassim to Tinku Mandi, Shantanu Guha Ray examines the allegations of corruption against players, cricket administrators and bookies alike. He interviews the myriad people who linger in the shadows of players' dressing rooms - the middle men, agents, 'friends' of IPL franchise owners - placing bets on games and enticing cricketers to reveal inside information for money, sex or, worse, fear for their lives. Also under the spotlight are the roles of the police and the government, who have, at best, made patchy efforts to stem the rot. Fixed!: Cash and Corruption in Cricket is an incisive, unflinching look at the underbelly of what once used to be a gentleman's game.

A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India's illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket. For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India's illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It's a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing.Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion...

In this book, Mihir Bose examines the rollercoaster nature of India's cricket history, from its early days in the time of the British Raj to the present day period that has been characterised by both the sublime (the batting mastery of Sachin Tendulkar) and the ridiculous (the match-fixing scandals associated with the nefarious activities of certain Indian bookmakers). Mihir Bose's lively, informed, and always entertaining text is supported by a full statistical appendix.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Amnesty, a “ferociously brilliant” (Slate) novel about two brothers coming of age in a Mumbai slum, raised by their crazy, obsessive father to be cricket champions. *A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES * AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK Manjunath Kumar is fourteen and living in a slum in Mumbai. He knows he is good at cricket—if not as good as his older brother, Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling, and is fascinated by curious scientific facts and the world of CSI. But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn’t know. Sometimes it even seems as though everyone has a clear idea of who Manju should be, except Manju himself. When Manju meets Radha’s great rival, a mysterious Muslim boy privileged and confident in all the ways Manju is not, everything in Manju’s world begins to change, and he is faced by decisions that will challenge his sense of self and of the world around him. Filled with unforgettable characters from across India’s social strata—the old scout everyone calls Tommy Sir; Anand Mehta, the big-dreaming investor; Sofia, a wealthy, beautiful girl and the boys’ biggest fan—Selection Day “brings a family, a city, and an entire country to scabrous and antic life” (Chicago Tribune).