A short story by Sunil Bose in the autumn annual of the Khelar Asar in 1980 well summarises the culture of cricket described in the book. The author stitched a patchwork of incidents on the field, the attitude of spectators and practices of the press. The story begins with Bengalis deciding to give the Hindu goddess Durga respite from her annual task of battling the demon Mahisasur, instead asking the male gods to confront a team of demons in a three-day game of cricket at the Eden Gardens in 1977. Tickets vanished from the counters in no time. The 150,000 complimentary tickets sent to heaven were not enough for the 3.3 billion gods, so Mahadeb, one of the holy trinity, asked for additional million complimentary tickets as ministers were known to demand. As the CAB could not fulfil his demand, he replaced the current secretary with a person named Biswanath, much like how Biswanath Dutt was appointed the CAB secretary in 1977. The treasurer god organised a lottery for ticket distribution. Millions of enthusiastic gods queued for two days to buy coupons. The police commissioner among the gods ordered baton charge to discipline the troublemakers. Mahadeb used his clout as Durga’s husband to lead the team like the Indian Maharajas of yore often enough abused their role as sponsors and would lead the team themselves. He unabashedly included one of his less athletic sons in the team ignoring a more deserving candidate, mirroring the very signs of the favouritism among Indian selectors that allegedly went against Bengal for generations.

The football matches organised in the stadium in summer had left the ground in poor condition, damaging the pitch, which was going to deteriorate as the match progressed. The team batting second was for sure at a disadvantage. Durga, like a typical female spectator, was knitting a new tiger skin for Mahadeb. As one of the demons reached his century, a young girl invaded the field with a garland in hand, mirroring the behaviour of star-struck female followers. The centurion’s behaviour towards fielders was appalling, which the umpires overlooked just as they did in real life out of deference for the foreigner. Spectators heckled the less agile fielders.