A Corner of a Foreign Field: Read an excerpt on Dalit cricketer Palwankar Baloo

At the heart of Ramachandra Guha’s book is this forgotten hero. Read an excerpt on Baloo’s performance during the first All India Team tour of England, in 1911.

In England the Indian captain was not often to be found with his team. Patiala [Bhupinder Singh, the then Maharaja of Patiala] played a match at Lord’s, and one or two more, but for the most part he was active on the London social circuit, partying and going to the races (there were many parties to attend that summer, for a new King had just ascended the throne).

The captain’s absence was a blow in purely cricketing terms, for this