'Democracy's XI' is an attempt to link cricket to India's political economy

Rajdeep Sardesai focuses as much on the off-field personalities of his protagonists as their on-field cricketing exploits

“I was twelfth man in a Duleep Trophy match. During the break, Sachin asked me for a drink. I gave it to him and shook his hand for the first time. I didn’t wash that hand for a few days” 

This was Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2001. Such was his adulation for Sachin Tendulkar. Just six years later, Dhoni was captaining Tendulkar in the national side. A decade later, “when a tearful Harbhajan hugged me, I got teary eyed but kept my head down so no one would see me crying,” says Dhoni about the ecstatic moments immediately after he