22 Yards

Book excerpt: It s exactly twenty-five years after India s spectacular World Cup victory at Lords, and Indian cricket captain Mayank Pradhan is preparing for the match of his life: the Twenty20 World Cup final. While an entire nation waits for the finals with bated breath, Mayank learns that some of his team mates have been bought by bookies. As Mayank grapples with myriad emotions, he relives some of the darkest moments of his life after India s abysmal showing at the ODI World Cup a year earlier. He revisits a damning, no-holds-barred report that he had prepared, citing the reasons for India s defeat. Reasons that ranged from ball-tampering to drugs, from philandering to betting. Haunted by these memories, with the Twenty20 World Cup looming before him, Mayank must find out whether the match has been fixed, ease underlying tensions, keep team morale up and play the best cricket of his life. The chronicle of one man s journey through the fickleness that is life and cricket, '22 Yards' is an unputdownable thriller.