A cricketing novel, and much more, from the Indian subcontinent

11th February 2021

Final Innings by Sunil Gupta – a cricketing novel, and much more, from the Indian subcontinent.

Final Innings is a great read for anyone interested in cricket and, in particular, cricket on the subcontinent. It follows the Indian team in a series of fictional matches in India itself, and in Australia, England and the UAE. The different wickets, the way the ball behaves, and how the varying cultures impact the players are all expertly portrayed. I learnt a lot. Not surprising because Sunil, as well as being an author, an actor and an ex advertising executive, is also a very experienced broadcast commentator on cricket. He brings authority to his writing.

But Final Innings is so very much more than a catalogue of matches won and lost. It is the story of the life of Ramdas Upreti, an (imagined) Indian batsman. The book opens with Ramdas at the crease in a test match in Adelaide in 2016. He is hit on the head by a bouncer and transferred to hospital, where he remains for weeks. He is looked after by Nurse Nargis, a Pakistani now living and married in Australia. They bond through their love of old Bollywood movies. There is a terrorist attack in Adelaide and Ramdas moves back to India to recuperate and recover from his injury. He can’t get Nargis out of his thoughts. Two aspects play on his mind – first her father, Khalid Azam, was by coincidence the umpire in the match in which he was injured and second, her husband had disappeared in the terrorist attack itself. He is presumed dead.

Back in India he begins the long (and some say impossible) task of getting back to playing first class cricket. It is a daunting journey. By his side is Anne, his girlfriend from the past who may still be romantically involved. They have a complicated, but essentially supportive, relationship. Anne is into ecology and stopping the increasing pollution of the Indian countryside. Ramdas recovers and again plays test match cricket for India – until he has a stroke whilst batting. He is once more in hospital and his first class career is over. He now wants to focus on what he can give back to the game as a coach or mentor. His overtures are not well met in India but they are taken up by Khalid Azam, the Pakistani umpire. Ramdas meets the Pakistan prime minister (himself a ex cricketer) and is taken on first to coach the Pakistan Under 19 team and then to front an international cricketing academy. There is, of course, some hostility in India to an Indian assisting the Pakistan cricketing authority and in Pakistan to exactly the same thing. Ramdas spends more time in Pakistan and inevitably again meets Nargis, now a nurse working in the dangerous tribal lands. The attraction, on both sides, still remains.

Ramdas is an idealist, but he becomes increasingly trapped in the murky world of India / Pakistan realpolitik. There are hidden motives behind people’s actions. Ramdas thinks he can change the world. He cannot. Thrown into the mix is the desire by some for Kashmir to be independent and not occupied on one side of the dividing line by India and on the other by Pakistan. Regional politics dominate.

The book moves to a quite startling conclusion. And, right until almost the end, Ramdas finds it hard to resolve his dilemma between Anne and Nargis. Which (if either) will he choose if the has the choice?

Final Innings is a really good read for cricket enthusiasts, for those who can emphasise with the challenges that Ramdas faces in his life, and for those who wish to educate themselves in the mysteries of Indian / Pakistani / Kashmiri politics. It works at many levels.

Tony for the TripFiction

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