Born in Vienna and educated in Darjeeling and Kolkata, Ashis Ray is an award-winning broadcaster and print journalist, who became a test match commentator on cricket on All India Radio at the age of 24. As a member of BBC's Test Match Special commentary team, he covered the 1979 and 1983 World Cups, including commentating on the final of the latter event. He has also broadcast ball-by-ball or as a summariser on Doordarshan, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Caribbean Media Corporation. Australia's Sun-Herald newspaper hailed him as "Voice of India". Trevor Bailey, former England all-rounder and a co-commentator, was moved to describe his commentaries as being in 'precise classical English'. Ray has written on cricket for almost every major paper in Britain and India. His 1987 video, 'Great Moments of India Cricket 1932-86' became an international bestseller. A foreign correspondent in London since 1977, Ray became CNN's first South Asia bureau chief in 1992, before being appointed its consultant editor. He has extensively penned his thoughts on political affairs in British and Indian media; and has occasionally lectured on South Asian matters to students at Oxford University and the London School of Economics. This is his first book.
A panoramic view of one-day cricket... One-Day Cricket: The Indian Challenge chronicles the limited over game from an Indian perspective. It traces its origins and covers every World Cup and Champions Trophy tournament and the 1985 Benson & Hedges 'World Championship'. India's victory in the 1983 World Cup finds pride of place. Some all-time great one-day internationals (ODIs) are highlighted as well as India's intense rivalry with Pakistan. The book concludes with a preview of the 2007 World Cup, and also examines Saurav Ganguly's previously controversial exclusion from the Indian side. An entire chapter is devoted to 'the turning point' for India in ODIs - a win against the then mighty West Indies in March 1983. The work also portrays the bumpy shift in the balance of power in world cricket from Anglo-Saxon control to Indian dominance. This mostly first-hand, anecdotal sweep of over 44 years of one-day cricket, blended with sharp analysis, is also an invaluable statistical guide. And it comes from the commentator who broadcast ball-by-ball on BBC, of India's meteoric march in the 1983 World Cup.
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