I was in a fun pow-wow session with Wasim Akram at the India International Sports Summit in Mumbai on Saturday evening when an sms arrived informing that the release of Shoaib Akhtar’s autobiography, Controversially Yours, at the Cricket Club of India on Sunday had been called off.
Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar was to officially release the book and I was to engage Shoaib thereafter in a Q&A based on the autobiography and beyond.

Some of his purported observations in the book about Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Shah Rukh Khan and Lalit Modi — not entirely complimentary — had hit the headlines. Given their stupendous body of work did Shoaib truly think Tendulkar and Dravid were either uncomfortable playing fast bowling or not match-winners? This offered enough grist to make the discussion volatile and interesting.
I was keener though to understand the dynamics of Pakistan cricket which seem to throw up terrific individual talent but hardly ever a great team. And what of the match-fixing scourge that seems to have plagued Pakistan cricket for a couple of decades now and seems to suck even newcomers into its vortex?
However, the reported slight of Tendulkar and Dravid (more than Shah Rukh and Modi) appeared to have riled some people enough (or make political capital of the situation) to stymie the event. I have not read the book yet and don’t have complete knowledge of what Shoaib has actually written, or the context in which he has taken ‘pot-shots’ at two of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game.
Their greatness does not hinge on one player’s opinion on way or the other. It is built up on the solid edifice of performances over a period of time long enough to erase any doubt. On the recent tour of England, I saw Tendulkar get a standing ovation at every ground when he walked out to bat or returned to the dressing; and this when he was not in particularly good form.
Where Dravid is concerned, his recent performances in England were an apt riposte to any lingering skepticism about his calibre. The ovation he got from all the England players, with Jonathan Trott even doffing his hat before shaking Dravid’s hand in the last ODI is a more telling comment, according to me, than anything else.
Be that as it may, it seems downright silly that the mere criticism of stalwart Indian players should evoke such extreme reaction. Considered at some depth, the emerging lack of tolerance and knee-jerk responses in Indian life — and not just in cricket — is worrisome. If a writer is not allowed to say it as he sees it in his autobiography (within limits under the wide ambit of freedom of expression of course), where else can he write this?
The fact that Adam Gilchrist’s autobiography, True Colours, in which the former Australia wicket-keeper had been critical of Tendulkar’s role in Monkeygate, faced no real problems in getting his book released in India also gives the current controversy a strong political hue even as it mitigates the right to opinion.
In a sense, I reckon that excessive gimmickry appears to have back-fired on the publishers of Shoaib’s book. There is a lesson in there about how clever marketing is different from being too-clever-by-half.
Meanwhile, here is a list of some fine cricketing autobiographies (that I have read) to keep you company this long season.
No protests please!