Alternatively, visit shop.thecricketer.com or call 0203 1981 359
Book club
You can purchase a selection of the books featured
in our reviews section. Please fill in this form with an
enclosed cheque payable to The Cricketer Publishing
Ltd and return to: The Cricketer, Court House,
Cleaver St, London SE11 4DZ.❑ All Ten: the Ultimate Bowling Feat £23.50 (inc £3.50 p&p)NameAddressPostcodeTe lEmailJULIAN DODDInspired by Sachin
Matthew Appleby takes in the cricket-
themed exhibition at the Chelsea
Flower Show which drew on India
The first cricket-themed garden went
on display at the Royal Horticultural
Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in May,
accompanied by the unusual sight of two
children performing a cricket dance in
front of a design featuring giant cricket-ball
planters and three-metre-high stumps,
set among flowers first brought to the west
from India by Victorian plant hunters.
Manha and Joshua, nine-year-old pupils
from St Edward’s Catholic Primary in
Marylebone, performed moves from ‘the
cricket dance’ in the British Council India
Garden, designed by 10-time Chelsea
gold-medal winner Sarah Eberle. The
garden included images of children playing
cricket in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The unveiling of the cricket-themed
garden ‘A Billion Dreams’ marked the
launch of the British Council’s legacy
project ‘Changing Moves Changing Minds’
- a cricket-themed education programme
aimed at promoting positive gender roles
to 100,000 girls and boys in India.
A pilot delivered in partnership with
MCC and the Royal Academy of Dance
ran earlier this year at schools close to
Lord’s. Academy-registered teachers
and MCC coaches delivered the classes,
focusing on strength, stamina and fitness
and the links between sport and dance. The
project hopes to encourage more boys to
dance and more girls to play cricket.
Inspired by India’s Mughal gardens and
the life of Sachin Tendulkar, the garden
marked the end of the British Council’s
UK–India year of culture.
Tendulkar had been invited to attend. In
the end, organisers settled for a retweet
to his 26m followers: “Touched and
humbled! Glad to see a garden dedicated
to a sport, specially the one I dearly love.”
Tendulkar was a 2011 World Cup winner,
and Steve Elworthy, managing director of
the 2019 tournament, delivered the men’s
and women’s World Cup trophies to the
garden to promote next year’s event.
Another visitor was former England
off-spinner John Emburey, who was at
the show to see his florist daughter’s
exhibit and was pleasantly surprised to
see the first Chelsea cricket-themed
garden. He said: “Women’s cricket is the
fastest-growing element of our game and
becoming more competitive.”
Emburey is looking forward to the 2019
World Cup. “But I’m a bit disappointed
the tickets for the final [up to £395] are
going to be pretty expensive.” A Saturday
ticket to Chelsea was £105 for all ages.
British Council India director Alan
Gemmell said half of Indian girls do not
reach senior secondary education and
only 28 per cent of women are currently in
the Indian labour market.
Eberle designed a record four gardens at
this year’s Chelsea. She won the highest
accolade in show gardening with her ‘600days with Bradstone’ garden in 2007.
Eberle admitted to knowing nothing
about cricket, but was keen to get the
proportions of crease, stumps and balls
correct. She visited India for the first time
in January, meeting craftspeople working
on the pietra dura inlaid walls of the garden
and gaining inspiration from the colonial
architecture of the Bombay Gymkhana
and from Himalayan blue poppies
(Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’), which are the
colour of India’s one-day shirts and the
feature plant on the garden.
At the last minute she downsized
the obtrusive cricket ball planters, so
they did not look too much like enfant
terrible Diarmuid Gavin’s wacky 2004 UK
National Lottery balls garden.
Eberle said: “There’s lots of different
messages, which is one of the challenges.
It all becomes too complicated. But the
messages are all related and you can
choose which one you want.”
Perhaps all the messages confused the
judges. The British Council artisan garden
won the second-best medal – a silver gilt- an omen for India’s chances in 2019?
ABove
Manha and
Joshua perform
their cricket dance
at Chelseathecricketer.com | 103Reviews | CriCKET LIFE