Lord's and Maharajas

Lord’s and Maharajas tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of India’s arrival into international cricket – a tale of scheming princes, bitter rivalries and imperial decay.

The All-India 1932 tour of Britain came at a crucial moment in the history of the Indian subcontinent. As British and Indian politicians waged ferocious battles to control India’s future, the fledgling cricket team became intertwined with the stormy politics of the British Raj. India’s unlikely first captain, the conscientious Maharaja of Porbandar, had to steer a divided team through the perils and pitfalls that nearly spelled disaster for the new Board of Control for Cricket in India. Instead, it proved to be the first step on the Board’s journey to becoming cricket’s superpower.

The story features some of the great names in cricket history – the mysterious Ranji, Douglas Jardine the architect of Bodyline, and CK Nayudu, India’s first cricket superstar. There are also walk-on parts for historical titans such as Gandhi, Nehru and Churchill, and major roles for several memorable Indian princes. The narrative’s first half traces the emergence of the BCCI and its turbulent quest to organise a debut Test for India while the second follows the fortunes of the 1932 tour, culminating in the Test itself – a match which turned out to be a classic. The power struggles over the destiny of India’s new team mirrored the simultaneous contest to remake India. Drawing on contemporary newspaper reports and previously unseen archive material,

Lord’s and Maharajas unpicks the complexities of the story with a light, engaging style. Against a backdrop of assassination plots and political turmoil, the book reveals just how high the stakes became for India’s first international cricketers in this moment of imperial crisis.