Contradictions could damage the book’s credibility

The nation is up in arms over Shoaib Akhtar’s startling revelations in his autobiography, ‘Controversially Yours’. His bold and rather disturbing statements about some of India’s biggest icons have left Indian fans angry and frustrated. So much so that the BCCI has now demanded that Shoaib issue an apology for trying to tarnish the reputations of Dravid and Tendulkar.
The question we need to ask in this context is how frank should or can an autobiography be? Should Shoaib have opened up in the way he has or should he have left some things untouched? For example, he may have done better by not saying that everyone tampers with the ball, a point he has repeatedly mentioned in all his interviews in the last 48 hours.
It is a catch-22 situation. On the one hand, we expect the subject to open up completely and give us the truth, the absolute truth, in his or her autobiography. On the other hand, if such truths are unpleasant, as truths most often are, we feel disturbed and let down and immediately move to suggesting that the writer must be trying to ensure the book gets maximum publicity and makes it to the best-seller charts. Wasim Akram has already suggested the latter in his reaction to Shoaib’s claims.
While he may be correct, it is also proper to admit that Shoaib is entitled to sharing his point of view in his autobiography. It is his book and in it he has the last word, whether we like it or not. It is this aspect, the possibility of upsetting well-established parameters of behaviour and wisdom, that makes the writing of sports autobiographies difficult. Can they be used as source for future research or rather, can Shoaib be taken at face value?
That he is trying his best to clarify his stance on Sachin Tendulkar is proof that his observations on Sachin in the book may have been expressed differently. This only strengthens the claim that the book is geared to meet the needs of the market. In his interaction with me at his book launch in New Delhi, Shoaib went to great lengths to say that “on that particular day in Faislabad, Sachin may have been scared. That is not to suggest that Sachin was scared of me or he is not a great cricketer. I am only referring to that particular day.”
This, however, is not what comes out in the book, where he states, “I think players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid weren’t exactly match-winners to start with, nor did they know the art of finishing the game. I bowled (Sachin) a particularly fast ball which he, to my amazement, didn’t even touch. He walked away! That was the first time I saw him walk away from me – that, too, on the slow track at Faislabad. It got my hunting instincts up. In the next match, I hit him on the head, and he could not score after that.”
Self contradiction, as cited above, is fast becoming the norm in the immediate aftermath of publication for most sports autobiographies. The one that immediately comes to mind is Adam Gilchrist’s ‘True Colours’. The book caused much controversy, with Gilchrist calling Sachin Tendulkar a bad sport. He subsequently tried to clarify things in a personal phone call made to Sachin during Australia’s tour of India in October-November, 2008. Despite reading the section many a time, one fails to fathom how a clarification could help undo the written word.
Twice in ‘True Colours’ is Sachin mentioned as a bad sport and the telephonic clarification only resulted in confusing the reader. It appeared that Gilchrist was in damage-control mode, knowing full well that the book would lose credibility if Sachin was wrongly implicated in the narrative. That Sachin came out saying Gilchrist hardly knows him well to write such a thing only helped to dirty the turf and the book was in the news for all the wrong reasons in India.
With Sachin now saying “it is beneath his dignity to react to Akhtar’s claims”, it can well be that ‘Controversially Yours’ does well in the market for its sensational news value. The larger point here is one about honesty and integrity. While the writer is every bit within his right to say whatever he likes without being libellous, he should also be firm enough to stand by his statements, post publication. Contradictions in the face of media pressure only result in damaging the book’s credibility and defeats the very purpose for which it was written – document the real truths. Boria Majumdar