The second edition of the Ekamra Sports
Literature Festival concluded with a grand ceremony announcing the First Sports
Books Awards of India. The awards drew an overwhelming response from authors,
publishers and sports fans.
The Ekamra Sports
Book Awards in as many
as six categories were
announced. The jury comprised senior editors and academicians who
shortlisted submissions received from various publishing houses.
Winners of First-ever sports book awards:
- Cricket Book of the Year – Wizards: The Story of Indian Spin
Bowling by AnindyaDutta. Published by Westland
- Sports Book of the Year – Cricket Country: The Untold History
of the First All India Team Cricket by Prashant Kidambi. Published by
Penguin Viking
- Autobiography of the Year – 281 & Beyond by VVS Laxman
and R Kaushik. Published by Westland Sport
- Biography of the Year – Dipa Karmakar: The Small Wonder by
Bishweshwar Nandi, Digvijay Singh Deo,Vimal Mohan. Published by
Fingerprint Publishing
- Outstanding Sports Book Award – No Ball: The Murky World of
Match Fixing by Chandramohan Puppala. Published by Pan Macmillan India
Speaking
on the occasion Shireen Sethi, Director of Ekamra Sports Literature Festival
said, “The second season of the Ekamra Sports Lit Fest had some extremely
engaging sessions with prominent authors, bestselling books and the first ever
sports awards being presented. “The next edition in 2020 would focus to bring
in more sports writers from India and abroad, and with it bring in varied
experiences, stories from across the sporting spectrum. We look forward to
looking at more sports oriented books but in the genre beyond biographies and
autobiographies.”
The second day of
Ekamra Sports Literature Festival began with a discussion on Athletes
turned Politicians. Panelist Kirti
Azad, member of 1983 World Cup
winning Indian cricket team, said politics
offers a platform for sportspersons to
give back to the game. Participating in the discussion Dilip Tirkey, former Indian Hockey Captain, spoke of the transformation to a politician
from the grueling field of sports. They said being a sportsperson and
serving people as a politician are filled with uncertainties and at the same time,
are challenging.
The
most emotional and controversial session of the day was about a book authored by
CanadianCyclist Kristen Worley titled Woman Enoug. Worley , a transgender sportsperson , said
physical transition from one gender to
another was painful and terrifying . She
said life takes a different turn . She said she endured many odds and even won court cases to
participate in cycling and won there
too.
The
unusual session was on the Billion Dollar Industry with participants from
sports management companies such as JSW
Sports, Go Sport, Meraki Sports,
Baseline Ventures. The panelists spoke of the challenges of nurturing sports
talent and the need for better co-ordination within the eco-system of
Federations, state governments, management agencies, Foundations and athletes.
Post
lunch session started with a discussion on the book“ Fortune Turners” by AdityaBhushan and Sachin Bajaj with special guest appearance of
former spinner RajinderGoel. He delighted the audience with anecdotesof the
magic spells by bowlers of yester years. He described how cricket changed over
time in every aspect while the author spoke about the importance of remembering
the legends of cricket.
Crowd
favourite and Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka who won several awards for
his debut book Chinaman spoke about cricket in Srilanka and the life around its including
politics. He said that cricket in
Srilanka was no longer an exclusive club. Cricket is well catalogued these days
he said. While discussing Chinaman,
Shehan said though people say his book makes readers like cricket , it is not
necessary that those who read books go to see cricket and those who go to see
cricket love to read books. Sports and politics in India and Srilanka are the same
according to him, but he felt that in India the situation is better. Asked
about how he is feeling now after switching to write children’s books from
writing books like Chinaman, Shehan said
that he has to do lot of research and it
was tougher to find a publisher ten
years ago for Chinaman but that it was easier with children’s books.
The
final session of the day was on the book
“Border’s Battlers” a thrilling
book on
world’s only twice- tied- up cricket match in the word that happened between India and
Australia at Madras. The narration involved the umpire Vikramraju who raised
his finger to dismiss Maninder Singh to the much agony of Indian team
which otherwise would have won if he didn’t. Reminiscing about the
match, Vikramraju, now in his eighties, sait he did what had to be done at that
point of time. He still believes it was the right decision. The author of the
book Michael Sexton, who came in all the
way from Australia, described how the elaborate research required for the book
and his experiences of interviewing the players involved.
While
receiving the prize of Best Sports publisher of the year for Westland Publishers, VK Karthika said that there is lot of scope for sports fiction like that of Chinaman written by
Shehan Karunatilaka ten years ago.
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