War Minus The Shooting : A journey through South Asia during the 1996 Cricket World Cup

War Minus the Shooting is a vivid portrait of a subcontinent in ferment during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, an extravagant tournament that foreshadowed the great shifts in the commerce and economics of the game. Mike Marqusee travels through south Asia, chronicling the sometimes farcical, sometimes tragic, and often stirring events of the World Cup. Along the way, he deftly dissects the tournament’s controversial themes: national identities, racial tensions, cricket board politics, the power of money, and much more. With cricket as the thread, Marqusee weaves a tapestry that captures India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka at a crucial juncture in their histories, with over a billion people grappling with the hopes and fears unleashed by a globalized economy.

Praise for War Minus The Shooting

‘A classic, reflecting on a time and a tournament when cricket was mobilising its commercial clout, with all the consequences now playing out.’
- Mike Atherton, former England captain and chief cricket correspondent of The Times

‘An insightful, joyful traipse through cricket's largest neighbourhood just before its geographies were redrawn and its futures deliberately went separate ways.’’
- Sharda Ugra, senior sportswriter and author

‘As fresh and alive now as it was when it first came out, War Minus the Shooting remains essential to understanding the modern pose of cricket. As a subcontinent travelogue on the forces of commerce, nationalism, history and politics driving the game, it is an unmatched masterpiece.’
- Osman Samiuddin, Senior Editor, ESPNcricinfo, and author of The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket

A perceptive exploration of cricket’s intersection with geopolitics, identity, capitalism, and South Asia’s post-colonial political realities, War Minus the Shooting is one of cricket’s most enlightening reads. Although the book tangles with immense complexity, Marqusee’s touch is light, his own takes often veering toward the irreverent, his wit making every chapter sparkle. An unbridled joy.
- Andrew Fidel Fernando, Sri Lanka correspondent ESPNcricinfo and author of Upon a Sleepless Isle