If, excluding my college contemporaries as well as all Karnataka players, I was to make up a playing XI of Indian cricketers I shook hands with, it would read, in batting order:

1. F.M. Engineer

2. Abbas Ali Baig

3. V.S. Hazare

4. H.R. Adhikari

5. Mohammed Azharuddin

6. M.A.K. Pataudi

7. Hanumant Singh

8. P.R. Umrigar

9. Kapil Dev

10. S. Venkataraghavan

11. B.S. Bedi

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind, by Ramachandra Guha. Chapter 5 Handshakes with Heroes, pg 163

List making is important. It organizes our ideas. It breeds new ideas. It helps us remember important, and less important thoughts. And it’s fun.

I love that Ramachandra Guha not only took the time to construct a list of this type, but he also arranged it in batting order.

Also “A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind” might be the best subtitle ever crafted.