An evening with some of Indian cricket’s most well-known and erudite figures is bound to be an interesting one. The launch of Out of the Box: Watching the Game We Love, a compilation of Harsha Bhogle’s columns in The Indian Express, was held at the Taj Lands End, Bandra, on August 18. In attendance were eminent faces, cricketers and fans of the game. Sachin Tendulkar was presented with the first copy of the book. Also present were former national hockey captains Dhanraj Pillay and Viren Rasquinha, former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira, seasoned sports writer and editor Ayaz Memon, Academy Award winner Resul Pookutty, actors Atul Kulkarni, Rahul Bose and Ashmit Patel, TV personalities Cyrus Broacha and Shenaz Treasuryvala, educationist Nandini Sardesai, ad filmmakers Aarti and Kailash Surendranath, musician Nandoo Bhende, and veteran painter Prabhakar Kolte, to name a few. The book was launched in the presence of The Express Group Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta and Chairman of SAIL SK Roongta. Gupta opened the evening by paying tribute to Bhogle’s immense knowledge and passion for cricket as well as his undeniable talent in writing about it. The launch was followed by an animated discussion about the game. The panellists included the eloquent Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League, Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of the IBN 18 Network, Sanjay Manjrekar, former cricketer and commentator, and Bhogle. It was moderated by Gaurav Kalra, sports editor of CNN-IBN. The panellists discussed the merits of the T20 format and talked about bringing fans back to Test cricket, with Bhogle saying, “For years, we’ve abused the Test fan, by making him sit on bare concrete with no shade or other facilities. We need better infrastructure to woo fans back.” Hear, hear.
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