Shehan Karunatilaka's novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the 2012 DSC prize for South Asian Literature and is shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.He named his top ten books on cricket for the Guardian. One title on the list:
The Meaning of Sport, by Simon BarnesRead about the other books on the list.
This may be cheating. It's not strictly a cricket book, but then neither was the enchanting Netherland,that was widely acclaimed to be one. If I had my way, Ed Smith's What Sport Tells Us About Life, Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch and George Plimpton's The Curious Case of Sid Finch would be cricket books, simply because they allowed me to write one.
Simon Barnes, the poet of British sports writing, suggests sport could be a glimpse into the soul of man, which of course it is. And there's sufficient gushing over the 2005 Ashes win to justify its inclusion. A brilliant read.
--Marshal Zeringue