Cricket in Indian Mythology

Since the author has been actively involved in cricket as a commentator for nearly half-a-century, he got an opportunity to explore avenues beyond the accepted norms. When Dr. Heiner Gillmeister, a Professor at the University of Bonn in Germany came up with a theory that cricket is a game of Flemish origin played in the County of Philanders, it took the author to his childhood game of Gulli Danda. It aroused in him an insatiable hunger to delve deep and find out other indigenous games akin to the primitive game of cricket played by the Philanders. Going through the life of Lord Krishna, the author came to know of a game Kanduka Krida played in Vrindavan by the shepherds with Krishna. A thorough research, substantiated by relevant quotes from the scriptures, helped the author establish the similarity between Kanduka Krida and archaic cricket. The analogy in the book that Sanjaya of Mahabharata was the first commentator of the world at Kurukshetra, describing the events with the help of his celestial vision which the author equates with the lens of the television camera. Indian mythology again finds place in cricket where the author finds a distinct functional similarity between the Third Eye of Lord Shiva and the Third Umpire of cricket. It is a unique book which acknowledges that Indian scriptures are a storehouse of vast unexplored knowledge.