Review ’s sticky

Burhan Wazir enjoys a glance through the covers of a cricketing history

Wounded Tiger: The History reputation as soap opera, example, was a teenager when of in Pakistan Peter where the private and he was hired as a trainee roads Oborne, Simon & Schuster, professional lives of players – inspector by the Public Works £25.00 who have variously tried Department. He was housed acting, singing and advertising in a villa in Officers’ Colony, In sporting terms, the off-field – are considered of on Garden Road, in . Pakistani cricket team is paramount national interest. As the game evolved in unlike any other national side. Throughout the book, Oborne the Seventies and Eighties, A more accurate comparison charts the course of a national however, it began to embody might be struck with South side navigating a path through individualism as much as American footballing giants squalls of post-British rule, teamwork. Stars such as such as Brazil and Argentina. dictatorships, the , Javed Abundant in natural talent, independence of , Miandad and , the Pakistani team has conflicts with neighbouring who helped guide the country demonstrated extraordinary , the Russian invasion of to its first World Cup win in skill, resolve and flair during Afghanistan and the current 1992, demanded better wages its 60 years of existence, metastasizing of a low-level and training facilities. They yet it has also been marred civil war. Unsurprisingly, also sought to free the game by obduracy, vanity, Pakistani cricket has been from the kind of political underinvestment and knocked all over the place interference and nepotism corruption. All these by all these political forces. that regularly led to player attributes and ailments have, Yet those early decades strikes and boycotts. on occasion, surfaced within of first-class cricket were Against this backdrop the space of a single game. a triumph of goodwill over of the internal politics within Wounded Tiger, Peter meagre resources. On the sport, Wounded Tiger Oborne’s incisive overview Pakistan’s first tour of also explains some of the of the history of cricket in in 1954, during global forces that have Pakistan, gets its title from the which the visiting team, changed the game over national side’s flawed genius. only in existence for five years, the past two decades. It begins with the country’s managed to draw the series During years of military birth pangs after the partition and score a memorable win rule by Ayub Khan and Zia of India in 1947. The creation at The Oval, Pakistan sent no ul-Haq, cricketers were of a national team was from accredited newspaper or radio diplomatic pawns, and the the start seen as an essential correspondents. Players game often suffered from part of nation building by survived on expenses of ten corrupt selectors and periods leaders such as Liaqat Ali rupees a day and laundered of austerity. Elsewhere, Khan, Pakistan’s first prime their own whites. The father satellite TV, endorsement minister. In a country short of the modern game in deals, limited-overs of uplifting news – both then Pakistan, Abdul Hafeez tournaments, day/night and now – modern cricket Kardar, as an avowed matches and the rise of Pakistan A H Kardar in Pakistan has long been Anglophile and team captain, cricketing venues in cities at The Oval after beating England associated with setting showed his players how to such as Dubai and a narrative that seeks to use knives and forks. changed the game. In Asian politics, Wounded Tiger embody the liberal principles In these early days, players Pakistan, capitalism would provides an excellent and of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. were considered government inevitably triumph over a entertaining account of how In reality, its history has employees. Modestly paid but top-down approach. It would cricket can mirror the fate been nothing less than secure state jobs and benefits also, unfortunately, lead to of nations. Oborne strikes troubled and at times farcical. were made available to them. the stigma of match-fixing a sympathetic tone: he is Millions of Pakistani cricket , a leading and corruption. generous with praise and fans can testify to its batsman of the era, for For followers of sport and the book benefits from a

46 | the world today | august & september 2014

REVIEWS 03.indd 46 29/07/2014 11:52 Review Reading List Pakistan’s sticky wicket Migration

The Age of Migration: a productive theme for Burhan Wazir enjoys a glance through the covers of a cricketing history International Population biographical novels. Selvon’s Movements in the Modern account of the generation World Stephen Castles, Hein of Caribbean men settling de Haas and Mark J. Miller, in the then working-class Palgrave Macmillan, £27.99 neighbourhood of 1950s A good introduction to Bayswater is a giant of the subject and an excellent the genre. The immigrant

CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY CENTRAL account of the debate encounter with British between social policy racism is dissected in a story theoreticians and laden with humour. practitioners. A perspective rooted in the liberal Scattered Sand: The Story consensus which holds of China’s Rural Migarants that immigration is part Hsiao-Hung Pai, Verso of modernity and ought to Books, £9.95 be engaged with positively. Western viewpoints can see migration as the movement Bloody Foreigners: of workers from the The Story of Immigration underdeveloped world to Britain Robert Winder, to the mature economies. Abacus, £12.99 Pai’s excoriating account of An immensely readable China’s peasant class moving history of population to the new cities provides movements into the British an antidote, describing the Isles. Winder’s thousand- experience of millions who year time span gives a sense are migrants in the country of the role migration plays of their citizenship. in forming and reforming society. He argues that we The British Dream: can be optimistic that the Successes and Failures challenges will be overcome. of Post-War Immigration David Goodhart, Atlantic Arrival City: How the Largest Books, £9.99 Migration in History is This offers up a ‘post-liberal’ Reshaping Our World – and more pessimistic Doug Saunders, Windmill – perspective. Migration Books, £8.99 is seen as undermining Saunders leaps to the the social consensus which defence of the cluttered and allowed Britain to construct apparently messy migrant a welfare state. A decent enclaves in the world’s big social democratic-type cities. Where some see chaos society, Goodhart argues, sophisticated retelling of key talented players to sign with and failure he finds order requires stricter control matches, visits to Pakistan established English county and ambition. Sometimes of migration. and first-hand interviews. sides – a skills drain which they turn into ghettos, Yet despite the country’s is regrettably seen in other but he sees this as a failure Don Flynn, Director, The remarkable achievements, aspects of Pakistani life. of planning and policy. Migrants’ Rights Network its democratic and military Cricket audiences may have and chairman of the UK rulers have never managed become global, but the centres The Lonely Londoners Race and Europe Network to expand on their original of power remain the same. Samuel Selvon, Penguin and the Platform for creation to realize the birth Classics,£8.99 International Cooperation of a viable national league. Burhan Wazir is Editor Immigration has been on Undocumented Migrants Local economics still force of Qulture.com

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