Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Cricket Books

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #76
    "Steve Smith's Men" by Geoff Lemon seems to be more promising.

    Comment


      #77
      I realised recently that I hadn't read Simon Hughes's 'A Lot of Hard Yakka', so picked it up on KIndle, I found it excellent - he's very good on fellow cricketers, and his descriptions of Mike Gatting and John Emburey are are spot on. I'm now reading a job lot of Lancashire CCC yearbooks - from 1979-94. They are like mini-Wisdens for one county, with tons of stats. I was hoping that my one gane against Lancs U-25s was in there, but sadly it wasn't.

      Comment


        #78
        I've starter Wounded Tiger and It's ok. I guess that it's due to havingto fit a lot in but there is a lot of what happened but very little why. It doesn't help that it starts in media res. I've looked for Corner of a Foreign Field but it appears to be out of print so I'll have to find a second hand seller.

        Comment


          #79
          I've now finished Wounded Tiger and it picked up massively in the more thematic chapters. Overall there was just a bit too much summarising of test matches with player statistics but it's decent book

          On reflection it feels more like a history of the Pakistan test team than a history of cricket in Pakistan. But I may just be looking for quibbles about a book I didn't enjoy as much as I'd hoped to.

          Comment


            #80
            Cannot recommend The Great Tamasha highly enough:

            https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-astill-review

            Comment


              #81
              Picked up 'We're right behind you captain' by David Hopps in a charity shop. It's about the 1997 Ashes and the run up to them. Enjoyable and some good/ bad memories. Agree with the comments about Slipless in Settle, which is great, and the Trundlers, which was a bit disappointing to me.

              I like the look of 'Upon a Sleepless Isle' by Andrew Fidel Fernando but it seems quite hard to get hold of.

              Comment


                #82
                "The War Of The White Roses" by Stuart Rayner is the first book specifically devoted to the Yorkshire civil wars that affected the club for many years. The story starts in 1968 after winning the championship and the decline begins benignly - an ageing side reaching the end of its natural cycle, Trueman retires - accelerates with a certain G Boycott front, centre and everywhere else and finally ends in 1986 when Boycott loses his playing contract (at the age of 45). The author's done his research, plenty of sources from the time and he gets a good range of interviews. Some people (Illingworth most obviously) decline to participate and there are clearly practical problems with speaking to some protagonists, but the interviewees aren't just Yorkshire folk and include Jack Bond who died the other day.

                Perhaps surprisingly Boycott gives an interview and you can see the author trying to be fair to him, but literally every step of the story has Boycott at its heart and often at fault (slow scoring, spectacularly flouncing out of Scarborough after being dropped, a seeming lack of concern with what happens to the side as a whole). The public love him, most of the players detest him and it eventually reaches a climax when Boycott supporters take over the committee in 1984. There's references to the way a "cult" forms around a certain individual. Spot the modern political parallel. Anyway, aside from a couple of times when it gets a little bogged down in political machinations amidst a welter of long-forgotten names, I enjoyed it.

                Comment


                  #83
                  I'd like to read that. Another chance to check the memory banks, childhood impressions versus historical accounts.

                  I remember it being a very big deal at the time: Boycott was a perennial news headline, whether ousted/quitting or returning. He had a platform on Parkinson (that has to be in the book?) and one time was on with Barry Manilow. Parky complimented the singer by saying "You could be captain of Yorkshire". Poor Barry was bemused.

                  Don Mosey at the BBC was initially a staunch defender who - I think - later cooled towards Boycott (although Mosey disliked everyone sooner or later). But the "cult" aspect was noticeable even then. Various committee worthies, with no grasp of media skills in those innocent days, came across as totally unreasonable, citing process and rules to persecute the saviour. For us cricket-loving kids, right and wrong was no contest. Who were we supposed to worship instead, Mike Denness?

                  I suppose the cult is still there, in a way. He's the media darling, however much cranky old rubbish he spouts.

                  Comment


                    #84
                    Yeah, there's a page about Boycott "in his Yorkshire County Cricket Club blazer and tie" going on Parkinson in October 1978 after being sacked as captain. The other guests are recorded as Manilow and Kenneth More. Parkinson warns the nation "The Yorkshire committee have picked on the wrong man this time."

                    There's also a line about Parkinson objecting to the county dropping the Yorkshire-only rule in 1990. It's always reassuring to be reminded that Parky is a reactionary small-minded shit.

                    Comment


                      #85
                      Mosey wrote a good book on Boycott in the mid-80s that I would recommend

                      https://www.amazon.com/Boycott-Don-Mosey/dp/0413572307

                      Comment


                        #86
                        Emma John, "Following On: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession and Terrible Cricket" has some excellent interviews with several of England's 90s players, including Atherton. She writes well, asks penetrating questions and doesn't take the answers at face value. The family memoir aspect held no interest for me but don't let it put you off.

                        Comment


                          #87
                          My weekend reading will be Cardus on Cricket. Managed to find a second hand copy in a bookshop in Cheltenham (full disclosure though, purchased on line). A Corner of A Foreign Field sounds like essential reading as does Fire in Babylon.

                          Comment


                            #88
                            I've spent a little while looking for "A Corner of a Foreign Field" as I'm not keen on spending £45+ on a second-hand paperback. Also, none of the normal ebook places had it, Roku wouldn't let me purchase in the Indian store and they weren't selling in the UK one.

                            At the weekend though I found that Blackwells had it as an epub (the second edition with a chapter on IPL), I've only just started it but it reads wonderfully.

                            Comment


                              #89
                              I very much enjoyed it.

                              Comment


                                #90
                                Geoff Lemon's "Steve Smith's Men" is great and even-handed

                                'Eye On Cricket' by Samir Chopra is erudite and well-written, including an essential piece about England's treatment of Asian players.

                                Comment


                                  #91
                                  I second the recommendation of Mike Brearley's "The Art of Captaincy". At one time it could be found in the kit-bag of every club cricket captain !

                                  I thought the Warwick Todd Diaries and its follow-up were funny when I read them 20 years ago

                                  Comment


                                    #92
                                    Maybe the lockdown will last long enough for me to get around to reading 'Another Bloody Tour'. Although in the meantime I have 'Beyond A Boundary' on my to-read shelf, so that should probably take priority.

                                    Comment


                                      #93
                                      'Another Bloody Tour' would be in my Top 10 cricket books, as would 'Beyond A Boundary' obviously. 'Another Bloody Tour' can be read in one sitting and is a joy.

                                      Comment


                                        #94
                                        This looks interesting but too expensive in hardback (August 1st 2020 release date): Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches: The Controversial South African Tour of 1970

                                        https://www.amazon.com/Barbed-Wire-C...s=books&sr=1-1

                                        This is more affordable but will have to wait until later in the summer: Hamilton's biography of Cardus:

                                        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...t_bibl_vppi_i5
                                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 15-05-2020, 13:40.

                                        Comment


                                          #95
                                          Thanks to this thread, and thanks to a greatly increased reading habit, Fire in Babylon, Grovel and War of the White Roses all now ordered.

                                          Comment


                                            #96
                                            All good.

                                            Comment


                                              #97
                                              Has anyone read The Unquiet Ones by Osman Samiuddin? It's a history of Pakistan cricket.

                                              Comment


                                                #98
                                                This looks interesting

                                                https://twitter.com/lonsdale_jeremy/status/1325057660413243393

                                                Comment


                                                  #99
                                                  I have just bought 'Sins of Omission: The Story of the Test Selectors, 1899-1990' by Alan Synge (1990) and 'Ashes to Ashes' by Marcus Berkmann. Cricket reading is one of my refuges in times of stress.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                                                    Not a cricket book, but on the subject of intimidatory fast bowling, this is interesting. From 1995:

                                                    http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/c...r-1594763.html

                                                    The seriously fast Andre Van Troost takes 4 wickets in 31 balls v the West Indians. Plus putting Jimmy Adams out of the next text, and sending down a (slower) head high full toss.
                                                    I was at that game. Absolutely grim – the groundsman had to come out with a bucket of sawdust to mop up the pool of blood on the wicket.


                                                    Originally posted by gt3 View Post
                                                    My weekend reading will be Cardus on Cricket. Managed to find a second hand copy in a bookshop in Cheltenham (full disclosure though, purchased on line). A Corner of A Foreign Field sounds like essential reading as does Fire in Babylon.
                                                    I recently read Duncan Hamilton's The Great Romantic, a Cardus biography, which was really good, as well as extremely sad. Really should give some actual Cardus a go too now. First though, it did prompt me to pick up a second-hand copy of All on a Summer's Day by Margaret Hughes, which is, according to Cardus's introduction, 'the first book on first-class cricket not written by a man'.

                                                    Speaking of Duncan Hamilton, I usually tend to avoid (auto)biographies of active sportspeople, but his work on Jonny Bairstow's A Clear Blue Sky is well worth a read. The stuff about his dad is, as you'd expect, absolutely heart-rending.

                                                    I'd also add my recommendation of A Corner of a Foreign Field.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X