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DEAR REDIFF

"The perfect man has to like cricket, first"

Although Emma does like other sports, cricket remains her first - and in fact, only - love. "Cricket wins over the others, by miles. I mean, I am interested in football, follow my home team, Bradford City, in the English leagues, but not to the extent that I follow cricket. And even with football, I am more interested in looking at the passion of the fans, rather than at the game itself. I guess I like sports because they reflect so much about society, and about the people, in each particular place. For example, if you look at football in Brazil and Italy and Argentina or whatever, you will see that it commands the same enthusiasm that cricket does in this part of the world - and I guess that is what interests me, why people relate to the sports of their choice."

Given that her first love is cricket -- specifically, Indian cricket -- it is no surprise that her reading is dominated by books on Indian cricket. "I find it very difficult to read any book that's very historically based, those things - also books with lots of stats - go over my head. I guess I don't have the kind of mind that can absorb historical facts and figures. The books I like are the ones that capture something -- the essence, the environment, the atmosphere, the character.... I read a couple of books by Ramachandra Guha, Spin and Other Turns and Wickets in the East., also A Maidan View by Mihir Bose. Cricketwallah by Scyld Berry, based on the England tour of India in 1981-'82, has also given me immense pleasure.

"I guess what is common about all those books are that they give you a very personal viewpoint of the game. Then there is the newspaper articles that I read, when I am in India I regularly buy three, four newspapers and read all the sports reports. I like writers like Scyld Berry, the way they write about cricket is like it's an art, not a sport."

Her interests encompass travelling, cinema, reading, - "I am an illiterate, in the sense that I read very little literature with a capital L" - Arabic music.

"I love to enjoy life is, I guess, the best way of putting it," Emma smiles.

Goals? "Oh, to keep working on my own terms. I don't particularly work for any publication, churn out stuff simply because someone wants me to. I want to stick to being a freelance. I've done that for four years, and enjoyed it very much, I love the freedom it gives me. Goals? Actually, I guess I want to make a lot of millions, and be very famous!" The laugh accompanying the words is carefree, uninhibited...

Emma remains resolutely single - and indications are, she says, that she is liable to stay that way for the conceivable future. "I've no desire right now to get married, it is quite simply out of the question. Of course, I get a lot of proposals but none of them is suitable," she grins.

And what would Mr Suitable be like? "Well, first and foremost, he has got to like cricket. Secondly, he has to tolerate me -- which is very difficult! He has to be intelligent, he has to have a wonderful sense of humour, he has to like music, sports, travelling. He has to enjoy eating. Also, he has got to be honest, straightforward. He has got to be a dancer. Above all, he has got to be a challenge, someone who will argue with me, someone who can stand up for what he believes in...

"That's my perfect man," she says, as she readies to leave.

And you are left with the feeling that that particular blueprint is very characteristic of Emma Levine herself. That perhaps what she is looking for is a male version of herself...?