I have had a soft spot for Mihir Bose ever since I published A Maidan View in 1984 - about cricket in India. It is a cracker of a read. I subsequently commissioned him to write another cricket book Cricket Around the Boundary about the people who make up a first X1 - touts, ground staff, media players et al. I was trying to see if we could make some inroads into CRL James' epic Beyond the Boundary which I thought we did. He also did a biography of Michael Grade for me.
Mihir hails from Calcutta and has made his way in the UK writing for the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, the FT and covering sport on the BBC. He's written over 20 books which is going it.
He trained as a chartered accountant which is why he is so good at looking at the Business of Sport for he must be one of the few journalists who can read a balance sheet.
We talked, as we nearly always do, about sport and India. I was keen for him to write a biography of India!