I have often thought that cricket is really, in the sociologist Ashis Nandy’s phrase, an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British. Everything about cricket seems ideally suited to the Indian national character: its rich complexity, the endless possibilities and variations that can occur with each delivery, the dozen different ways of getting out – all are reminiscent of a society of infinite forms and varieties.
我经常想，板球真正是－用社会学家阿希斯·南迪的话来说－一项偶然被英国人发现的印度运动。关于板球的任何东西都好像和印度的民族性格完美地相配：它的复杂性，每一次投球时可能发生的无穷尽的可能性和变化，许多不同的出局方法－所有这些都让人回想起一个有无限形式和变化的社会。