Indian Summers by Gideon Haigh

Reviewed by Richard Tutin

Australians know that summer has well and truly arrived when Test Cricket is promoted and broadcast. Over the years Australia has hosted many great teams: England, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan immediately come to mind.

We should not forget India in this list of worthy adversaries who have come to our shores to test the Australian teams in both the five-day and one-day formats. Well known journalist and writer Gideon Haigh has produced this volume in honour of the 2024/25 season’s contest of five Test matches for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

It is not often realised that India and Australia have been playing each other for over a century. When they began, both countries were very different places than they are today. India was a great unknown for the Australian players. The articles Haigh includes highlight the difficulties Australian teams had to face when touring the subcontinent. Likewise, the Indian teams found Australia very different from what they were used to back in their home country. It was not only playing conditions such as a wide variety of pitches and outfields. The differences in culture and size of population made sure that tests where not confined to the cricket field. Surviving gruelling tours became the order of the day.

Things have, as Haigh points out, have changed over the years. What has not changed is the competitive spirit of both teams. As well relations between them have had their ups and downs. Both teams have been guilty of pushing the rivalry too far.

Yet cricket binds them closely together. India is now a major player in international cricket at all levels. Australia is also in that category so, when the two come together to play in tests or any other form of the game, it is indeed a battle of the titans.

Haigh also reminds us that the crowds who come to watch the teams in action have also changed. When India toured Australia in earlier years the spectators were mostly Australian with a small sprinkling of Indian supporters. The reverse was true when Australia toured India. It is a very different world today. A sizable part of the Australian population has its roots in the subcontinent. Indian supporters come in large numbers to a match or series especially if their favourite players are part of the team. Many Australians travel to India to catch our team in action.  Australian players now participate in the dominant T20 Indian Premier League series.

Many threads have been drawn together in this book. It not only covers key highlights of different tests in both countries it also provides insight into the personalities who have made Indian and Australian cricket so great.

Photographs are also included in the book though they are not as integral to the word-smithing that Haigh contributes and has contributed for over forty years. Reading Indian Summers provides us with some understanding of the unique and often prickly relationship both countries share as they pursue excellence in one of the world’s greatest sports.

Gideon Haigh has been described as one of Australia’s most versatile journalists and writers. He has written eighteen books on a variety of subjects. Indian Summers is his fourteenth publication on cricket about which he also writes for The Times and The Cricketer.

Indian Summers

by Gideon Haigh

(2024)

Allen & Unwin

ISBN 9781761472138

$34.99; 341pp

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