Shadows across the Playing Field tells the story of the turbulent cricketing relations between India and Pakistan through the eyes of two men ? Shashi Tharoor and Shaharyar Khan ? who bring to the task not only great love of the game but also deep knowledge of subcontinental politics and diplomacy. Shashi Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary-General and man of letters, is a passionate outsider, whose comprehensive, entertaining and hard-hitting analysis of sixty years of cricketing history displays a Nehruvian commitment to secular values, which rejects sectarianism in sport in either country. He is now a member of Parliament and Minister of State for External Affairs. Shaharyar Khan, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, is very much the insider, who writes compellingly of his pivotal role as team manager and then chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Control Board at a time when cricket was in the forefront of détente between the two countries.