Book Review - The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket (Osman Samiuddin)

Disclosure: I've always been fascinated by Pakistan, the cricket team and also, the country. Even though I live in a neighbouring country, quality and unbiased reporting on Pakistan has been scarce in the Indian media, print or electronic. The extreme stereotypes have always been pushed to the front, as is usual, and it needs some effort on your part to learn about the average Pakistani and the society in general.

This book brings together two of my favorite book genres, Sports and History. But to call it a book on "Sports History" would be doing a great disservice to it. Through this book, Osman Samiuddin provides us a window into the various phases of Pakistani society, via the sport of Cricket. Sure, Cricket remains the central theme, but the larger, societal view remains a constant - even if peripheral - feature. And it should be no different, for Cricket in the subcontinent is a microcosm of the Country's prevailing conditions. Maybe it is even more true in Pakistan, where the cricket board has always operated under the control of the government, military or civilian. Thus, it is fair to expect Cricket and society to be inextricably tied to each other.

The book is a fairly long read, but for a book that aims to chronicle close to 65 years of Pakistani Cricket, the author has done a very good job. The rigour is notable, esp coming from a young author whose lifetime perhaps only covers about 60% of the period he has written about. He has covered all major phases of Pakistan cricket and done justice to each one of them with fairly detailed accounts.

The charm of the book, however, lies in the anecdotes and the relaxed writing style, with a liberal usage of quotes and phrases in contemporary Urdu. Historical accounts always seem to bring with them a rather pedantic style of writing, with measured strokes of the pen/keyboard from seasoned pros. Samiuddin, while not being a beginner by any means, brings a certain desi kind of flair to his writing, much as Wasim Akram did to fast bowling. This is where the book scores, in my mind. Books have been written about the subcontinent by Western authors before, but despite their best efforts, it is hard for them to invoke a desi state of mind, to best capture the vagaries of the east. Samiuddin has performed a stellar role in this regard. Separate chapters are reserved for some of the biggest superstars, such as Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram. Intermittent commentary on the Lahore-Karachi equation is fascinating to read as well, embodied by the Imran-Javed relationship. 

The book takes flight, much like batsmen in the last 10 overs, in the last few sections, covering the period from the 1992 world cup to the present. Some of the passages in those sections are truly unputdownable . I went through a marathon 7-hour reading session, interrupted only by Dinner, and never once did it feel laboured. It helped that the stories being told were as captivating, if not more, as the writing style. The 1990s were a time when Pakistan team illuminated the cricket field with their performances and in equal measure were marred by corruption scandals off the field. Perhaps only Pakistan can exist in such a dichotomous universe. There's also a chapter on how/why Pakistan has become an assembly line of fast bowlers, and that most of them have been plucked out of relative obscurity and at a young age. Even if you don't read anything else in the book, the coverage of the 1990s and later is worth your time/money.

In summary, a truly compelling read, possessing both a breadth and depth of coverage. For an outsider like me, it is a great account of the enigma that is Pakistan. It wouldn't be wrong to call it a labor of love, and Osman Samiuddin has provided a great insider's view of how Cricket went from being an urban, elitist pursuit to a behemoth that truly pervades Pakistani society and is one of the few unifying factors in a country with rich diversity, but also plagued by internal troubles for a large part of its existence.

I wish someone would take inspiration and write something similar on Indian cricket!

Goodreads page for the book