"Nani-da Not Out", by Moti Nandy, is one of the best fictional books on cricket I have ever read. It is about a character called Nanida, who is the player/captain/coach/director of a second division cricket team in Calcutta called Jorabagan. He is an archetypal romantic throwback from the golden age of amateur cricket. He has been living and breathing the game for more than three decades at the point which the novel starts. In the second division world of the Calcutta Maidan, Nani-da is notorious for what is called 'Nani-tics'. As an example of the latter, let me reconstruct an episode from the novel from memory (I don't have a copy with me here in the US).
This was the incident in his youth that launched the Nani legend, both in terms of fame and notoriety. Nani-da was a young player for Jorabagan back then. Jorabagan was playing their annual prestige match against traditional rivals Goldighi (?). The intense rivalry between the two teams stretched back to about fifty years, and was a veritable war of the roses (like Yorkshire versus Lancashire) for the local people. When one of the two teams lost a match, it was a year long period of dishonor and humiliation for them.
That day, things were looking very bleak for Jorabagan. Having lost the annual match on the past three ocassions, they just had to win that year. But their hearts sank when they saw that Goldighi had fielded four Ranji players (two batsmen and two bowlers) that they had hired. The inevitable happened. Jorabagan was bundled out for 14 runs. There was a funeral like silence in the dressing room. The captain of Jorabagan broke it with a loud lament -- " Another year of torturous humiliation!" At this point the young Nani opened his mouth :
"Not necessarily" he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it is not inevitable that Goldighi will win"
"With fourteen runs on the board?" ...Jorabagan's Bank Manager captain was beginning to lose his patience with this young urchin.
"If I am made captain for the afternoon," Nani replied, " I promise to draw the match, even though we cannot win it".
The captain was livid at this point. "Fine!" he said, "You are captain for the afternoon, but I'll box your ears personally if we lose".
Nanida nodded his head.
The Goldighi innings commenced. Two Ranji players stepped out to complete the formalities. It seemed that the last rites would happen in double quick time when Nani-da himself came in to open the bowling with his fastish off breaks. The Bengal opener on strike warmed himself up with three boundaries. 12 off the over. Three to win. At this point, Nani-da shocked everyone by calling Shambhu to bowl the next over. No body had hitherto seen Shambhu bowl in the gullis, let alone in a match. He was in the team because he used his bat like a shovel late in the order for some quick runs, and being the local long distance champion, was a panther in the outfield.
Nani-da whispered some instructions in Shambhu's ears as the batsmen waited and the fielders seethed. Shambhu nodded and then proceeded to measure his run up, which was a full forty paces. Then he ran in to bowl, like a West Indian pacer approaching the stumps. But when he was nearing the umpire, the most unexpected thing happened. Shambhu stopped suddenly, turned, and ran back to his bowling mark. Then he turned again and ran in towards the umpire. then stopped and ran back again. This carried on for five or six times till Shambhu, bored of it himself, started running around the field with the ball in hand.
One of the umpires approached Nani-da, who was standing poker faced.
"What is he doing? Is he crazy?"
"No" came the reply, "My bowler is in the middle of his run up"
"What??"
Nani-da gave a surprised look at the umpire "Is there a law that limits the length of a bowler's run up"
"N-no" the umpire stammered...."when is he going to finish his run up?"
"At 4.30" replied Nani-da..."when the game is over".
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