Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book about India’s history told through the story of eleven cricketers has been included on the shortlist for the 2018 Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award. The shortlist, announced on March 20, comprises five titles other than Democracy’s XI – three cricketing biographies, an Australian book about cricket photography and an account of the 1939 Durban Test.

Run by the Cricket Society since 1970 and in partnership with MCC since 2009, the award is given out annually and comes with a cash prize of £3000. Sardesai is the only Indian writer on the shortlist and if he takes home the award, he will be the third Indian writer to win in the prize’s 48-year-long history. Ramachandra Guha won the award in 2002 for his book A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport and in 1990, Mihir Bose won for History of Indian Cricket. The winner of this year’s award will be announced in a ceremony on April 17. The complete shortlist is below:

  • A Clear Blue Sky by Jonny Bairstow and Duncan Hamilton (HarperCollins)
  • In Sunshine and in Shadow: Geoff Cope and Yorkshire Cricket by Stephen Chalke (Fairfield Books)
  • Edging Towards Darkness by John Lazenby (Bloomsbury)
  • Connie: The Marvellous Life of Learie Constantine by Harry Pearson (Little, Brown)
  • Feeling is the thing that happens in 1000th of a second: a season of cricket photographer Patrick Eagar by Christian Ryan (Riverrun)
  • Democracy’s XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story by Rajdeep Sardesai (Juggernaut)