Book Review: Boundary Lab: Inside the Global Experiment Called Sport, by Nandan Kamath

 I just finished reading Nandan Kamath’s Boundary Lab and I’m a changed person. Never ever will I look at competitive sport in the way I used to before I read this tome. Each and every chapter in Boundary Lab starts with an intriguing question and then commences a slow and deep dive into the issue. Is body building a sport or a beauty pageant? Why was garbage not cleared after the IPL match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Delhi Daredevils in April 2012? Can a sporting event’s official broadcaster call on the governing body of such sport to engineer the tournament’s design to guarantee atleast least one match between arch-rivals (India-Pak for cricket, Australia-NZ for rugby, Argentina-Brazil for football) in the course of the tournament, during prime time? Should India bid to host the Olympic Games? Are the benefits of hosting the Olympic Games worth the expense? Was Azharuddin actually cleared of all match-fixing charges? When in 2012 the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the life ban imposed by BCCI on the former Indian captain, did it amount to a clean chit for Azharuddin, as he immediately claimed ? Is there immunity for those causing injury to opponents in the sporting area? What if the injury has been caused intentionally, such as when Mike Tyson bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear or when at the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil, Neymar was deliberately pushed from behind by Colombian defenders, cracking his vertebrae and debilitating him for the rest of the tournament?

Kamath writes in simple but elegant English as facts, issues, arguments (for and against) wrestle inside the paper pit to throw up conclusions, which are logical and sensible. Boundary Lab is a must-read for all sports buffs and all those are interested in knowing more about the laws that underpin sporting activities in India.

Nandan Kamath is a trustee of GoSports Foundation, the Principal Lawyer at LawNK and a co-founder of Sports and Society Accelerator