Arguments between the two go beneath the Ahmedabad surface to stir up antipathies rooted in the colonial relationship
“I have a question back: what is a good cricket surface? Who defines it?” – Ravichandran Ashwin
In Ramachandra Guha’s history of Indian cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field, he describes the disdain the British showed towards the first Indians who played the game, tells how one of the very first matches between English and Indian teams was “Officers with umbrellas versus Natives with bats”, and explains the way this derision spurred the locals to take the sport more seriously.
Related: The agony for Australians having to support England against India
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