The accusation here is that the East India Company prioritised the growing of poppies for opium and indigo for dyeing fabric over rice.  The result claimed in Test Match was that rice became twelve times as expensive.  History tells us that there were other additional reasons for the deaths of between seven and ten million people, crop failures and drought.

I find it trivial to compare the deaths of millions of people with corruption in cricket.  If this play is an attack on British capitalism, these statistics from the LSE’s survey of wealth in October 2023 make interesting reading.  The typical white Briton has a household net worth of £140,000.  Ethnic minority groups in Britain, at all levels of wealth, are substantially less well off than white Britons, shows the report.  The exceptions are British Indians who have a typical household net worth of £160,000. 

The performances in the First Act are interesting and Tanya Katyal doubles as an Indian player who overhears the discussions on money and in the Second Act, as the servant Abhi, she is party to the colonial conversation.  Her reading of the rules of cricket in a strong Indian accent makes these even more intelligible!   

The set is white carpeted disc and because it did not revolve, there were times when I could see neither the face of the person speaking nor that of the person being spoken to.  Diane Page is the director.  There is audience participation bowling in the interval but not with a hard cricket ball.