The Tiger Takes Guard - Episode 1

Psychoanalyst and former England captain Mike Brearley travels to India to explore the vibrant and complex relationship between the nation's economic development and its love of cricket. India has come to follow cricket with a verve and intensity that would have amazed, and possibly dismayed, the Victorian adventurers who first brought the game to its shores. As a national sport, Indian cricket has no parallel. There may be more money in American basketball and as much passion in Brazilian soccer. But two things distinguish this sport in India that are unmatched anywhere else on the globe. The first is the numbers, with 500 million people taking part in the game. The second is history, and the way in which India's national identity and its economic and social life is so bound up in it. Mike examines the impact of the Indian Premier League, which is poised to change the face of the game, and how Indian dominance in the boardrooms of the sport relates to its past as a colonial property and future as an economic power.