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My Friend Sancho
My first novel, My Friend Sancho, is now on the stands across India. It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai, and was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. To learn more about the book, click here.
To buy it online from the US, click here.
I am currently on a book tour to promote the book. Please check out our schedule of city launches. India Uncut readers are invited to all of them, no pass required, so do drop in and say hello.
If you're interested, do join the Facebook group for My Friend Sancho
Click here for more about my publisher, Hachette India.
And ah, my posts on India Uncut about My Friend Sancho can be found here.
Recent entries
Ah, modern times. Check out these two amazing news headlines: Community ostracises woman touched by outsider Muslims on social…
Just back from the Galle Lit Fest, rested, and all set to resume blogging. Let me begin with the…
In a few hours, I’m off to the Galle Literary Festival. Blogging will be light till I’m back in…
Reader Ruchir Khare writes in to point me to this passage from the Johann Hari piece on Dubai that…
The WTF statement of the week comes from a Dubai cop: The woman confessed that she had sexual intercourse…
09 September, 2008
The Dinda Surprise
An article on Cricinfo about Sourav Ganguly being dropped from the Rest of India side for the Irani Trophy contains the following words:
Meanwhile, Ashok Dinda, the Bengal medium-pacer, got a surprise call-up to the squad…
Surprise? It ain’t no surprise to me, given the kind of horse trading that happens on zonal considerations. One east zone man, Ganguly, got dropped; compensation was due. And since Ganguly was replaced by Mohammad Kaif, I’d wager that the central zone selector supported the east zone selector on picking Dinda.
This kind of horse-trading happens when it comes to picking the marginal spots in a squad, the four or five players left after the certainties are picked. Dinda bowled well in the IPL, and I hope he makes the most of this chance. But I absolutely hate the zonal system of selection. And I remember what Sharad Pawar, the president of the BCCI, said on the subject a couple of years ago:
If I have to change the zonal system, I have to amend the constitution. And ultimately if I have to amend the constitution, then I have to get support from zonal representatives. (Laughs).
Who would cut the branch he sits on?
Posted by Amit Varma in
