As is the case with any other sport, in cricket as well, all great cricketers earn their nicknames; such as the likes of the great Michael Hussey and Sachin Tendulkar who graced the cricketing fields with their majestic presence, and eventually became popular as `Mr Cricket` and `The Little Master` respectively. Samir Chopra, the author of Eye on Cricket, which is a compilation of a number of essays that he has penned down on the glorious game of cricket, immensely deserves a nickname of this sort as well. He may not be a champion batsman whose stroke-play enthrals fans globally, but the strokes of his pen and the intensity of his emotions are unrivalled when it comes to acutely analysing and writing on cricket.

It is a given that all avid cricket followers would be eager to get their hands on Eye on Cricket as it offers an unprecedented depth and knowledge of the game. However, fatefully, if someone with even the slightest amount of interest finds themselves flipping the pages of the book for a couple of minutes, it just might do enough to hold their attention initially, and captivate them completely in a short while as it brings to life such facets of the game that are rarely spoken on or even thought about.

The book has been logically divided into eight thematic chapters with 38 essays spanning a good 240 pages. The novelty that Samir Chopra`s vast experience as a writer and observer of the game adds to the book is evident in almost every essay which spawns quite a few fresh perspectives. A few excerpts from the book can be instanced here where the writer explores and tries to understand cricket through various languages and dialects that commentators use across the globe. In addition to that, he also brings forth the belief of certain experts perhaps wrong that the cricketing intelligence of the players and the languages that they speak might be associated:`These accents and languages all provided alternative idioms with which to understand and visualise cricket ... the suspicion grew: was the colonial prejudice about the diminished cricketing intelligence of the Asian or Caribbean cricketer grounded in the perception that the English they spoke was `different`?`As aforementioned, Samir Chopra continues to expound in the book on such aspects of the sport that have not been touched upon in detail before. Another example could be his attempt to take a look inside the minds of the Americans who are generally considered ignorant about the game by the bona fide cricketing nations. What transpires in the wake of that endeavour might surprise a great many people:`The old-fashioned baseball fan shares a great deal with the Test cricket fan: ... of ten romanticised past, an often expressed dismay over rule changes ... essential contest between bat and ball ...

Aside from the diversity and variety of the triangulated angles, another significant element of Chopra`s writing is his ability to look at things through a microscopic lens, and in turn make his readers experience each and every little detail. Taking into account that each essay, on an average, is not longer than just a few pages, his ability to make his reader virtually stand in the middle of the action and live it first-hand in a few short paragraphs through meticulously decided diction, is commendable:`The action out in the middle felt fast and furious; the fielders were aggressive ... a fast bowler who was constantly overstepping did not appreciate my no-balling and ... questioned every call ... the fielding side`s captain was a pesky, inquisitive, irritating type, who kept moving me around because he could not get his own run-up straightened out ...

Expanding a tad more on Chopra`s diction, the book offers quite a bit to those readers who simply pick up reading material due to their love for the language. His imagery and choice of words appeal to those who like to engross themselves in such texts that stimulate their senses:`... the crack of the bat echoed around the ground, as did the thump of the bat on the pitch ... the scrape and scratch of the bowler`s boots on the crease as he ran through to bowl ...

In addition to the pictures that Chopra is capable of painting in a reader`s mind he is also quite capable of putting together words that are masterfully dipped in sarcasm and satire serving at least two purposes. These are undermining the effects of the defeat of the reader`s favourite team, and putting a smile on the reader`s face while going through the text that otherwise discusses the adverse circumstances that are a part and parcel of international cricket for every team:`Somewhere along the line, the deities in charge of dream fulfilment reached in to my inner mental realm, plucked out the scorecards of these fevered dreams, and sent them to the Dream Instantiation Unit. But the idiots in charge, proving divine incompetence is the norm and not the exception, switched the names on the scorecards.

Anglo-Saxons and sundry South African mercenaries replaced Indians; the results of my fantasies were cruelly modified.

Needless to say, a book on cricket cannot be deemed complete if the author does not make the players that live and breathe cricket as their livelihoods, a part of it. At the outset, it might seem obvious to the readers that international cricketers would be focused on at one point or another; however, Chopra opts to go one step beyond this obvious conjecture: in some of his essays, he not only discusses the agony and pain that the international cricketers endure for months during and after a heavy defeat, he also sheds light on those who never make it to the international level; how their dreams are shattered squandering their youth away playing in the streets of their countries.

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