Test Cricket is an odyssey into cricket's heart and history, filled with heroes, villains, laughter, tears, bats and balls. No subject has escaped cricket writer and filmmaker Jarrod Kimber in his chronicling of Test match cricket. He takes cricket fans through all the seismic events in cricket's tragicomic history, from its accidental birth to its run-in with death. Lords, maharajahs and refugees have all played the game that has survived many wars, corruption and terrorism to still be standing - still be captivating - today. Cricket has been dented by history, evolved by nature, grown entire nations and had to fight just to remain. This is not just the story of the people who played the game; this is Test cricket's story.

Cricket is a sport which is currently undergoing a rapid and dramatic transformation. Traditionally thought of as an English summer game, limited in appeal to Britain and its Commonwealth, cricket has, in the past a few years, achieved a global profile. This is largely due to the development of a new TV-friendly format of the game: Twenty20 cricket. Indeed, through the economic and media interests promoting the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament, cricket has belatedly ‘gone global’. The rapid rise of the IPL underlines that the economic and political characters within cricket are no longer the traditional elites in metropolitan centres but the businessmen of India and the media entrepreneurs world-wide who seek to shape new audiences for the game and create new marketing opportunities on a global scale. The contributions in this book fall into two broad categories. There are firstly those which explore the rapid growth of Twenty20, particularly the motors of change and the new directions that cricket is taking as a result of the Twenty20 revolution. Secondly, there are a number of contributions which chart the impact of Twenty20 on traditional elements of the game. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

'Engaging and enjoyable . . . as probing and as penetrative as a Jimmy Anderson opening spell . . . This is no ordinary novel by no ordinary novelist' Sunday Times 'A fine addition to the painfully thin oeuvre of modern fictional works about cricket' Mike Atherton, The Times 'Outstanding' Mail on Sunday 'If all you know is cricket, then cricket will break you . . .' It is the final Test match of The Ashes. A nation expects, and the rest of the cricketing world is watching. Fast-paced, humorous and candid, The Test follows the battles on and off the field as stand-in England captain, James McCall, tries to get his exhausted team across the finish line. Along the way, his story becomes one of fatherhood, friendship and trusting yourself when no one else will. Nathan Leamon's love letter to Test cricket is that rare thing: a novel that captures the feel and flavour of professional sport from the inside - the good, the bad and the simply surreal. Not since J. L. Carr's classic A Season in Sinji has there been a novel that quite captures the spirit of the game. Included in Wisden Cricket Monthly's Finest Cricket Books Ever Written

If one were to do a nationwide poll of Indians born after Independence and ask which is the one date they remember most, the answer may well be 25 June 1983, the date on which India won the cricket World Cup. It is often said that cricket in India is like a religion; nothing could be more misleading. Religion has scarred the nation more deeply than anything else. Cricket is the balm that heals. In our collective consciousness, there is nothing quite like cricket. As the most visible expression of national identity, as an obsession or a dream, cricket is the only thing that possibly unites a country as diverse and as contradiction-ridden as India. In this brilliant book, Soumya Bhattacharya shows how we have made this game our own, given it our own colour, our own customs, our own codes. And how cricket in turn has come to permeate every aspect of our public life, from popular culture to politics so that, when a game is on, the rest of life happens strictly between overs.

The stories in this book are attempting to capture recent history and the great issues of our time in the form of children's stories. In ancient times e.g. in the Dreamtime and through folktales of all cultures stories based on human experience were shared with children helping to clear the way to the realisation of the eternal values essential for survival and spiritual evolution and material prosperity. It is an attempt to get through to not only children but to their elders as well through short, reality based tales

Nagasubramanian Chokkanathan (born January 17) better known by his pen name N.Chokkan is a Tamil Writer who has written two novels and nearly 100 short stories. His works has been translated into other Indian languages. Apart from this, he has written columns in several Tamil magazines. His interest for writing came from his blind aunt for whom he used to read a lot of books. His love for Books then made him to write few detective stories,which are not yet published.His first short story was published in 1997. His entry into Non-fiction area was kick started by a publishing house approaching him to write Biography of Sachin Tendulkar.He then wrote Biographies of famous Businessmen,Politicians and people who shaped the world.The list includes Narayana murthy, Azim Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin,to mention a few.

‘That day I cried like a baby not because I feared what cancer would do but because I didn’t want the disease. I wanted my life to be normal, which it could not be.’ For the first time Yuvraj Singh tells the real story behind the 2011 World Cup when on-the-field triumph hid his increasingly puzzling health problems and worrying illnesses. In his debut book The test of my life, he reveals how—plagued with insomnia, coughing fits that left him vomiting blood, and an inability to eat—he made a deal with God. On the night before the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final, Yuvraj prayed for the World Cup in return for anything God wanted. In this book, he lays bare his fears, doubts, and the lows he experienced during chemotherapy—when he lost his energy, his appetite, and his hair—and his battle to find the will to survive. Poignant, personal, and moving—The test of my life—is about cancer and cricket; but more importantly, it is about the human will to fight adversity and triumph despite all odds.