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A determined young woman's plan to escape from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan (and a cruel commander who wants to marry her) depends on the outcome of an unusual cricket match. Who knew that in the battle against oppression a woman's greatest weapon would be a cricket ball? This quirky and inspiring novel is now published in a beautiful paperback-with-flaps edition.
Synopsis
Who knew that in the battle against oppression a woman's greatest weapon would be a cricket ball? A determined young woman's plan to escape from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan (and a cruel Taliban commander who is determined to marry her) depends on the outcome of an unusual cricket match.
Book Details
Publisher:
Allen & Unwin
Publication Date:
01-Jul-2012
ISBN:
9781742378848
Observer review
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari review
Anita Sethi the observer Sat 30 June 2012
"There is no place for any act of violence on the field of play," states preamble No 6 in the Laws of Cricket an epigraph to this topical novel. So what happens when the Taliban form a propagandist cricket club? It is an intriguing question, which the author explores in this vivid novel set in a war-torn Kabul, where citizens are brutally assassinated and a woman has her finger chopped off for wearing nail varnish. The reader is less bowled over by comedy-drama than stumped by harrowing tragedy.
There is, though, a feisty female protagonist who finds a sense of freedom in sport. in journalist Rukshana, who has written about Taliban abuses and so fears the worst when she is summoned to the "Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice". But the minister in charge has other plans a cricket tournament, and his intention to marry her. Through her knowledge of cricket, learnt in Delhi, Rukshana sees a means of escape, for the winner will travel internationally. The plot is far-fetched, but the cinematic descriptions of war, and the joy of cricket, score highly.
