Selection Day by Aravind Adiga: book review

Selection Day (2016) is set in Mumbai (Bombay), India, where ‘cricket is every Indian boy’s dream.’

Science-obsessed Manjunath Kumar is fourteen years old, and almost as good a cricketer as his older brother Radha. He fears no-one except his stern cricket-obsessed father, offering cricketing advice: ‘Keep your head absolutely still. Play straight. Do not loft or hit across the line before the time is right.’

Pramod Sawant, in his early 40s, and head coach is trying to convince talent scout, Narayanrao Sadashivrao Kulkarni (known as Tommy Sir), to take a chance with Manju and select him as a batsman for the Mumbai Ranji Trophy Team. He describes Manju as ‘a bit of Sandip Patel meets a bit of Ricky Ponting.’

On selection day, when Manju is 16 years old, both brothers, Radha and Manju, were competing for a position on the team. What was Manju’s plan? There was father’s advice to get as many runs as possible – ‘to survive until you reach 20, and you are settled in. When you cross 50, the selector’s brain will say: This boy is special.’

Their father has a favourite son, a special son, and the sons have a special obsession. For Manju, is it science or is it cricket? On selection day, Manju must face, not only the incoming balls trying to get him out, but also his life-changing decisions.

If readers like the sport of cricket, they will like this novel of obsessions, dreams, family favourites, expectations, peer pressure, choices, dedication, love relationships. and wayward distractions. Its themes of brotherly competition, external circumstances, and paternal love are explored in a fascinating way, to make this an entertaining novel.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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