Cricket World Cup - The Indian Challenge - is a thoroughly accomplished and timely publication, launched in Australia on February 20 in the presence of Acting High Commissioner of India to Australia.

"It is a significant honour to launch a cricket book on the soil of the greatest cricketing nation in the World," remarked Roy. "The book has been coined as much for reading pleasure as for reference. I hope people find it to be as enjoyable and useful as I have relished writing it, he added.

An award-winning journalist, Ashis Ray is the senior-most active Indian broadcaster and writer on cricket, having made his debut as a Test match commentator on All India Radio at the age of 24.

Ray was the only Asian ball-by-ball commentator on the BBC's coverage of the epic 1983 World Cup. He has also commented on the sport on ABC of Australia, SKY Sports UK, SONY and Doordarshan and written on cricket for every major British and Indian newspaper. His classical English and golden voice kept generations of Indian listeners on All India Radio mesmerised.

Cricket World Cup - The Indian Challenge is an eye-witness history of the Cricket World Cup from an Indian perspective. "It is an attempt at a dispassionate appraisal of the rise, fall and re-rise of Indian cricket in the one-day realm - a saga one cannot ignore for with it has increasing since 1983 been inextricably linked the financial fortunes of World Cricket," remarked Ray.

The book covers all the matches that India have played at the marquee event of ODI cricket since its inception in 1975 till the last edition in 2011 apart from previewing the 2015 World Cup. Competently handled, Ray has written considerably from a first-hand inter-face and memory, embellished and refreshed by reference work.

Complimenting the work of author, Sunil Gavaskar, in his foreword, says, "I have known Ashis Ray forever, it seems, and have loved his style of writing. The way he finds the right word to describe a situation is quite amazing. Like with all his previous efforts, this book too will be a reader's delight with its insight, stats and anecdotes that will keep the reader turning the pages."