Menu

Selection Day

Overview

Selection Day is a 2016 novel by the Indian author Aravind Adiga. Set largely in Mumbai, the book follows two cricket-playing brothers from a modest background as they are pushed by their father towards professional success in Indian cricket. The novel uses cricket as a lens to examine ambition, class, sexuality, family pressure, and the commercialisation of sport in contemporary India.

Key facts

Title Selection Day
Author Aravind Adiga
Year of publication 2016
Genre Literary fiction; coming-of-age
Setting Mumbai, India
Central theme Cricket, ambition, family and class in urban India
Adaptation Television series of the same name (Netflix, 2018)

Background

Aravind Adiga is best known for his debut novel The White Tiger, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. Selection Day is his fourth book of fiction, following The White Tiger (2008), the linked-stories collection Between the Assassinations (2008) and Last Man in Tower (2011). Like his earlier work, the novel is concerned with social mobility, inequality and the moral compromises associated with rising aspiration in modern India.

Plot

The narrative centres on Manjunath "Manju" Kumar and his elder brother Radha Krishna Kumar, sons of a domineering chutney-seller named Mohan Kumar who has migrated from a village to a Mumbai slum. Convinced of a divine plan, Mohan grooms his sons to become, respectively, the world's best and second-best batsmen. The boys come under the patronage of a local talent scout and a businessman who sponsors promising young cricketers in exchange for a share of their future earnings.

As the brothers move through age-group cricket towards "selection day"—the day on which junior players are picked for higher representative teams—Manju is drawn into a complicated friendship and rivalry with Javed Ansari, a wealthy and openly rebellious batsman. The novel charts Manju's growing ambivalence about cricket, his exploration of his sexuality, and the eventual fracturing of the family's plans.

Themes

  • Cricket and Indian society: the sport is depicted as both a vehicle of social mobility and an industry shaped by money, sponsorship and patronage.
  • Patriarchy and family pressure: the father's obsession dictates the brothers' lives, raising questions about consent and identity.
  • Class and Mumbai's geography: the contrast between slum housing, middle-class neighbourhoods and elite schools reflects the city's inequalities.
  • Sexuality: Manju's questioning of his own sexuality is a central strand and adds to the novel's exploration of constrained identity.

Reception

The novel was widely reviewed in Indian and international press on publication. Critics commented on Adiga's continued interest in the dark side of Indian aspiration, the sharpness of his social observation, and his use of cricket as a structuring metaphor. Reviews were mixed to positive, with several drawing comparisons to The White Tiger.

Television adaptation

A six-episode television adaptation, also titled Selection Day, was produced by Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network with Seven Stories and released on Netflix in December 2018. The series starred Mohammad Samad as Manju, Yash Dholye as Radha, Rajesh Tailang as the father Mohan Kumar, Mahesh Manjrekar as the coach Tommy Sir and Akshay Oberoi as the scout-mentor Anand Mehta. A second part of the series was released in 2019. The adaptation condensed and rearranged elements of the novel while retaining its core focus on the two brothers and their father.

Significance

Selection Day is often grouped with a body of contemporary Indian fiction that engages directly with cricket as a cultural institution, alongside non-fiction works on the sport's economy and the rise of franchise leagues. It is also notable within Adiga's oeuvre for placing a young, sexually questioning protagonist at the centre of a story about Indian success.

References

  • Adiga, Aravind. Selection Day. HarperCollins / Picador, 2016.
  • Netflix series Selection Day (2018–2019), produced by Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network and Seven Stories.