Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer – Book Review
This review is long pending! I did finish reading it long back but really couldn’t find a decent time to sit and write the review!By the time I wind up the household work and other stuffs to sit for this post, I am sleepy. It would be way past midnight and that is really not the fit time for a post!Blame it on the on going IPL matches!!!
Even with the exams going on we were so keen to watch the matches that my parents really wondered how I can be so cool in letting the kids watch TV way past their bed time and that too during the exams!
Well, we don’t call ourselves cricket crazy but we do love to watch the match! My 7 and 11 year old may be qualify for that term as they just can’t stop talking about the game!
I think 99% of the Indian population are like this! Cricket it religion! Cricket is life! Cricket is important that food itself!!
This being the scenario, when the book -Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer came up for review I grabbed it eagerly.
Like I mentioned earlier,I did finish reading it quickly but the review got pending.You know the reason now!
- Title – Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer
- Author – T.Sathish
- Format – Kindle [ Also available in paperback edition]
- File size – 2300 KB
- Print lenght – 228 pages
- Publishers – Notion Press (25 February 2019)
- Price- INR 99/-
Sat, Sam, and Trib (a.k.a Triple sundae gang) are teenagers and they love cricket. They spend most of their time watching and playing the sport they love. They dream of making their living in the sport.
When they are not playing the game, they put on their thinking cap and come up with alternate versions of important matches or provide parodic answers to questions that have plagued cricket fans over the years.
However, fate intervenes in their idyllic life. On 18th April 1986, Javed Miandad hits Chetan Sharma for a six in Sharjah and leaves their cricket viewing life in tatters. The after-effects of this fateful event, continue to haunt them for many years.
Their problems don’t end there.
Sat fails to graduate from school level cricket to state-level cricket. He is heartbroken by the loss of his dreams and faces a mini identity crisis.
How do the boys solve their problems?
Will the boys ever recover from that Javed Miandad incident?
Will Sat get his mojo back?
Come, join the heartwarming ride and find out the answers, as Sat takes you through his nostalgic memories of the sport and narrates his coming of age story, which is deeply influenced by the sport!
So, this book is about the life of three friends and how they grew up playing cricket all through school and college.It talks of their aspirations, their efforts to make a name in the game that millions love.
The book is not a book about cricket as a game or about any cricketer of the past. It is more like a memoir .It is about how the game changed or how it was a part and parcel of the lives of three friends for whom cricket was more important than life’s breath!
80’s kids can relate to all that is said in this book.The matches that we listened on the radio or eagerly running to that uncle’s house that had the only TV in the neighborhood and being so jubilant when India won a match!And that sullen feeling when we lost to Pakistan most of the times!
Kapil Dev winning the world cup is still green in my memory. Most of the people had gathered in my neighbors house to watch the finals and when Kapil Dev lifted the trophy the whole house erupted with cheers and claps!I was a very small kid then, yet the scenes are still vivid!
I lived an area almost similar to the one mentioned in the book and we, the girls and the boys in the neighborhood would often argue on who is the best cricketer and which country’s spinner / bowler was the best!
The story flow effortlessly and the author takes us back to those good old days. The match summary table is something I really enjoyed reading. The names of the cricketers of those days proved to be so nostalgic.
Though the story is full and full about international cricket matches and those that took place in his college, the authors draws parallel to the final match he played for his hostel team and happenings in his college life !
I was literally rooting for him to win that match and was eager to read about how the chapter would end.And also to see if Trib’s prediction about Sat’s life mate would work out!
The other thing that I liked is that there are tit-bits of information of the matches that are mentioned in the book.
Apart from just cricket and related stuffs, there are parts where you literally laugh aloud, especially the one where they discuss how the French cricket would have been conceived,’Abdul’s’ gestures and the trios response!
Also the life of kids growing up in a colony, the guys and girls in college, the friendship and the dreams of the future are all something we can all relate to.
And finally, the language is simple and easy to follow.It does make it a good read.
Throughout the book, the author has brought out the image of the kids who aspire to become big in this field and how much they struggle and all the hurdles they go through!
If you are a cricket fan you will love this book. If you are an 80’s / 90’s kids you can relate to the things mentioned in this and I am sure you happily take a trip down the memory lane just like I did!I found myself nodding and smiling as the book got back those wonderful memories!
Yes, go for it. It is a quick read and one that goes on to tell you that even today there are kids like Sat, Sam and Trib for whom cricket is more than just an obsession!
T. Sathish is an IIM Calcutta alumnus and works in Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Sathish is an avid sports fan and a writer. Sathish writes columns in the Cricket section of the WorldinSport.com, an online sports magazine.
He has published short stories named ‘Hang in there’, ‘Am I Free?’ on the Juggernaut publishing’s digital writing platform. Sathish lives in Chennai, with his wife and his son.
Sathish can be reached on his twitter @sathishpgw or sathishpgw@gmail.com
A huge thanks to Writers Melon,the author and the Publisher for the review copy!
Check out the 60+ books that I have reviewed so far in the Book Reviews page