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ShareMumbai: After Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds, it now seems to be the turn of yet another Australian, former national coach John Buchanan to badmouth Indian cricketers to the bestseller list. In his second book, The Future Of Cricket: The Rise Of Twenty20, he seems to have taken to heart the lessons he learnt from his first book, If Better Is Possible (2008).
This tome on his "leadership philosophy" sank without a trace in the Indian market. This should have surprised nobody (with the possible exception of Buchanan himself) for it had no 'India-centric-masala,' something that most Indian publishers believe is essential for a cricket book to succeed in the Indian market.
A wiser Buchanan, in his second authorial venture, took good care of this deficiency. He has targeted everyone: from Sunil Gavaskar (a traditionalist unsuited to decide the future of T20) to Sachin Tendulkar (unfit for T20) to Yuvraj Singh (undisciplined, would expect someone else to pick up his gear after training), and even Vijay Mallya.
So, is criticising Indian cricketers just a character trait of Aussie cricketing figures who turn authors, or is it a deliberate ploy to kick up a controversy and stimulate interest in the book that would, in turn, boost sales?
HarperCollins' Saugata Mukherjee believes that there is certainly something of a marketing stunt involved, given the way controversies keep happening every time a cricket book is due for release. "Buchanan is not like a Shane Warne or a Brett Lee. I wouldn't expect a Buchanan book to do well in India, so some controversy would definitely help."
Buchanan's publisher, Sudhir Malhotra of Orient Paperbacks, when contacted by DNA, defended the author, saying, "Whether the provocative statements about Indian cricketers were a marketing gimmick or not can only be answered by Buchanan."
