Shyam Bhatia's museum

The walls of Shyam Bhatia's museum are filled with the history of cricket. The journey of the game from its inception, the deeds of all the greats of the game, and the history of almost all the great tournaments are on display here. Anyone who peruses the contents on the walls will return richer in knowledge about the game.

But Bhatia's efforts to enrich lovers of the game through his museum does not end there. The museum also houses a library filled with books and magazines that talk and discuss the game. The books there are a collector's dream, with autobiographies of almost every cricketer who has written one, most of them autographed by the player themselves. These are categorized based on their country, starting with Australia. Newspaper clippings of many great matches can also be found there.

One layer of the shelf is filled with a rare collection of the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack. The next one starts with rare books. Books authored by almost all legendary cricket writers can be found there.

Australian opener Matthew Hayden's 'Standing My Ground' is among the first, followed by the book "Caught Marsh bowled Lillee." Rodney Marsh's 'The Inside Edge' is placed next to it. Adam Gilchrist's 'True Colours' and Glenn McGrath's 'Line and Strength' add to the collection. Shane Watson's 'Watto,' Dennis Lillee's 'Over and Out,' Allan Border's 'Beyond Ten Thousand – My Life Story,' Shane Warne's 'Spun Out', Steve Waugh's 'Out of Comfort Zone,' and books by Richie Benaud to Bill Lawry's 'Run Digger', all of them only enhance the value of this collection.

Some of the priceless ones include the book written by Jack Hobbs 'My Life Story,' W. G. Grace's 'Cricket,' numerous books by Don Bradman, Dennis Compton's 'End of an Innings,' C.B. Fry's 'King of Sport,' and Gilbert Jessop’s biography 'The Croucher,' Bhatia has the rare books written by Prince Ranjitsinhji. His book ‘Jubilee of Cricket’ is a limited edition print with only 350 copies. Bhatia has the copy no. 29 with original signature of Ranjitsinhji. This book was published in 1908.

In addition to these, there are almost all books written by leading English cricketers. Andrew Flintoff's 'Freddie,' Nasser Hussain's 'Playing with Fire,' Marcus Trescothick's 'Coming back to me,' Tony Greig's 'My Story,' Mike Atherton's 'Opening Up,' Kevin Pietersen's 'KP – The Biography of a Rebel,' are just a few among the many. Then there are many books on former Pakistan captain Imran Khan, including his own book 'Pakistan', Javed Miandad's autobiography 'Cutting Edge,' and even a book written by Sri Lanka's cheerleader Percy Abeysekara titled 'I'm Percy Cricket Crazy'.

Umpire Dickie Bird's 'White Caps and White Balls,' umpire Rudi Koertzen's 'Slow Death,' Brian Murgatroyd's 'The Journey of Steve Smith,' Gideon Haigh's 'Sultan – A Memoir on Wasim Akram,' Ben Stokes' 'On Fire,' AB de Villiers' autobiography 'AB,' Viv Richards's 'Hitting Across the Line' are again just a few of the other interesting books. Legendary coach, the late Bob Woolmer's 'On Cricket' is another good read there.

In addition to the yearbooks of many English county teams, there are numerous books by almost all Indian cricketers and about them, starting with Sunil Gavaskar's 'Sunny Days,' 'Idols,' and 'One Day Wonders,' Sachin Tendulkar's 'Play it My Way,' Bishan Bedi's 'Sardar of Spin,' Sourav Ganguly's 'A Century is Not Enough,' Ravi Shastri's 'Star Gazing,' VVS Laxman's '281 and Beyond,' as well as G. R. Vishwanath's 'Wrist Assured,' written by R. Kaushik.

Trevor Bailey's 'Wickets, Catches, and the Odd Run,' CLR James's 'Beyond a Boundary,' the full series of the great Neville Cardus that transforms cricket into poetry, can all be found alongside books on the battle for the Ashes from 1928.

Original newspaper cuttings from 1950 till the last 17 years are all neatly bound and filed. And if you are someone who enjoys sports magazines, you can find some of the old ones from different countries in this library including Sport & Pastime dating back to 1948, The Cricketer magazines, India's Sportsweek and Sportsworld, and Sportstar from the 1960s.

Simply put, this amazing collection of books in the museum library is a journey through the best books on the game, most of them that have been talked about as outstanding and debated in cricket circles.