I was born 14 years after the Kapil Dev-led Indian Cricket Team won the World Cup in 1983 for the first time, and I was 14 years old when the MSD-led contingent won the World Cup a second time in 2011. As much a cricket fan as any Indian growing up in the early 2000s years of Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Virendra Sehwag, and ultimately, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, I have always liked the symmetry of this.
I still remember the shock and the heartbreak of 2007's infamous exit and the exhilaration of 2011's nail-biting win. The formative years of my early adolescence were framed by these two events in India's cricketing history. Playing and talking cricket in the four years in between allowed us, the boys — both at home, in the neighbourhood who played gully cricket on weekend afternoons, and at school, where we played more formally at the school playground — to bond over the game. Over those four years, my friends and I went through the same formative experience that all Indians go through at that age which transforms the game from a sport into a symbol of national pride and identity.
While I have a more critical and complicated relationship with how the game has been taken over by virulent nationalism and politics in recent decades, I cannot ignore the multilayered relationship that many, if not most, Indians have with Cricket and how it means different things — sport, entertainment, vocation, and path for survival and a better life — to different people. In a nation replete with multiple and conflicting identities, Cricket serves as a symbolic unifying force.
Boston-based creative director and photographer Vikram Valluri's new photobook, 'Cow Corner', is a photographic exploration, capturing cricket's unifying influence on India during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
In cricketing vocabulary, Cow Corner is the fielding position located on the leg side of the batsman, between deep mid-wicket and long-on. The name is believed to have originated in Dulwich College, where cows used graze in this area of the field. The Cow Corner is often considered a difficult position to field, as it covers a wide area of the ground.
Valluri's photobook takes its name from this challenging fielding position to document cricket not just in stadiums, but as it shows up in daily life across the cricket-crazy country — on the streets, at homes, and in people's hearts — where it holds a place of reverence, uniting over a billion people.
Valluri's photographic journey extends through Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Ladakh, showcasing cricket as an integral part of Indian life beyond sport and entertainment. The pages feature images treated to give the appearance of photographs that have been printed, handled, and weathered — providing a tactile, lived-in feel as if they have been passed among fans, held close with adoration, and shared over time like talisman. A document of Indian Cricket's coming-of-age story, Cow Corner uncovers cricket's role in transcending cultural, political, and religious divides, offering a unique glimpse into the sport's deep resonance across India.
Cow Corner is part of Blurring Books' series of Limited Slim Publications (LSPs). Grab your copy of the limited edition photobook here.
Follow Vikram Valluri here.
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