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    #51
    He was sacked as England captain because the MCC felt he'd be too easy to provoke by overseas crowds, if it couldn't even rein it in a county game. Slow over rates/gamesmanship was more of a pretext for sacking him (given that such tactics were quite commonplace).

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      #52
      And Yorkshire were closing in on the County Championship (which they duly won) at the time of that game in 1967 so the "time wasting" , though not attractive, wasn't really that surprising.

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        #53
        I was unfair on Mike Coward above. I would recommend his "Caribbean Odyssey" on the 1990-91 WI v Aus series, which is very perceptive on why there was so much hostility between the sides. WI were too old (average age 32.46) and about to implode; Aus were on the rise, already very arrogant but not yet good enough. WI still had a great quartet - Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh, Patterson - but Malcolm was nearing the end and they were just about to lose Viv, Greenidge, Dujon and then Haynes.

        However, avoid Coward's book on the 70s, which ties in with an ABC series. It is totally non-critical of the Chappells.

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          #54
          I'm about to start reading 'Over and Out' - Dennis Lillee's first autobiography from 1984. I've borrowed it from one of my Aussie cricketer mates. I'm not holding out much hope here. There will be comments on Javed Miandad and the whole 1981 betting scandal.

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            #55
            My favourite thing about Lillee is the nickname (F.O.T.: Fucking Old Tart). Downside: blaming everyone except himself for Headingley 1981, when he bowled too short and wide. Upside: I like the fact that he and Thommo are unapologetic about intimidation (this was also a good thing about Benaud's book of the same year: Benaud acknowledges that intimidation has always been part of the game, it's just that TV now makes it look worse).

            IIRC Lillee regards Andy Roberts as the best quick bowler he has seen. I would put Malcolm Marshall marginally above both, but we are definitely talking here about the absolute greatest of greats.

            Good review (by Kim Hughes' biographer) of Lillee's more recent effort:

            http://www.espncricinfo.com/page2/co...ry/137025.html

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              #56
              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.

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                #57
                There is a gap in the market for a good book about Brian Lara. I am plodding through Brian Scovell's hack job of pasted quotes and wacky claims ("better than Bradman" ffs) as that is all that seems to be out there.

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                  #58
                  He released an autobiography after his record breaking year in 1994 but it's fair to say your life will be no worse off if you don't read it.

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                    #59
                    He is a very egocentric sporting great. I mean, Viv was arrogant but at least he acknowledged that there were other people he needed to respect.

                    OTOH I cannot choose between Viv and Lara as batsmen. Both were perfection when on the top of their game. Nobody else I would rather watch than those two, although I have not seen any real footage of Bradman or Barry Richards to be able to compare. Sobers would be in the frame as well; Tony Cozier believed he never saw a better batsman than Sobers.

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                      #60
                      Viv Richards sent his son Mali to my school. Probably recalled the batting track from playing for Somerset against Gloucestershire at the festival.

                      David Foot rather went overboard about Mali in Observer Sports Monthly.

                      https://www.theguardian.com/observer...749374,00.html

                      His career first class batting average was under 14. That's Mali Richards, not David Foot.
                      Last edited by Tubby Isaacs; 20-02-2018, 22:52.

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                        #61
                        Foot was the ghostwriter of Viv's first autobiography

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                          #62
                          He was the go-to man for West Country cricket. He'd have ghost written Jim Foat's autobiography if one had been written.

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                            #63
                            Originally posted by Levin View Post
                            Oh, I nearly started this thread in the summer after reading CLR James. Though I was going to use it to ask for recommendations. Does anyone have general history recommendations? I'm thinking victorian/early first class to begin with. Browsing bookshops there seemed to be mostly biographies.

                            Has anyone read A Corner of a Foreign Field? It looks interesting on India.
                            Finally got round to it. It is awesome how it travels thematically through race, caste, religion and nation whilst remaining on a chronological path, which is set by the Quadrangular tournament in Bombay and the careers of the Palwankar brothers.

                            I have been trying to find his cricket anecdotes, Wickets In The East, but no joy yet.

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                              #64
                              Has anyone read the Fire in Babylon book? Or Grovel? or the Rae WG Grace book?

                              I've been hoping to come across the Birley or A Corner of a Foreign Field in a bookshop but I think I'm going to have to order them online.

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                                #65
                                Where are you?

                                There are usually copies of Birley on abebooks for a few dollars and I've also seen Corner there.

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                                  #66
                                  The Rae WG Grace book is very good. But I think some of the research done for the (also very good) book by Robert Tomlinson supersedes Rae's research.

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                                    #67
                                    I'm in London, so I've been browsing Foyles, Simpsons (Waterstones) and the like. The vast majority of cricket books are loo reads and [auto]biographies of recent test players. I think cycling has squeezed the amount of space that bookshops have for sport.

                                    I can get them online easily enough but I do try to buy in person as a point of principal.

                                    Oh, I'll look out for the Tomlinson.

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                                      #68
                                      Fire In Babylon and Grovel are fine.

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                                        #69
                                        Originally posted by Levin View Post
                                        I'm in London, so I've been browsing Foyles, Simpsons (Waterstones) and the like. The vast majority of cricket books are loo reads and [auto]biographies of recent test players. I think cycling has squeezed the amount of space that bookshops have for sport.

                                        I can get them online easily enough but I do try to buy in person as a point of principal.

                                        Oh, I'll look out for the Tomlinson.
                                        That's not a bad principle at all.

                                        The earlier Birley, The Willow Wand, is excellent, if you see it.

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                                          #70
                                          Got Fire in Babylon for my birthday. Which is as unputdownable as I anticipated. Lots of context and interviews, and a reminder that what our childhood memories recall as a more "sedate and stable" age of cricket, was in fact an era of all manner of tumult and insecurity within the game. And that insecurity dogged the game in the Caribbean as much as anywhere, even as they built the greatest of all sporting sides.

                                          And, of course, given that Test cricket is the most interesting form of sport, and that the West Indies of the 70s and 80s were the most interesting ever phenomenon in that sport, and that the 70s was the most interesting decade –*socially, culturally and politically – of the 20th century, does that make the West Indies tour of England in 1976 the most interesting thing that's ever happened in this country?

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                                            #71
                                            It goes with Rock Against Racism and the intersection of punk and reggae that enabled songs like Police and Thieves to reach the charts. Cricket in the Caribbean was maybe, alongside the various left-wing governments, the region's last resistance to Americanization, a battle it has now largely lost.

                                            A book still could be written on how the white cricket world refused to accept the legitimacy of the West Indies' supremacy. Fire In Babylon touches on that but could have gone further.

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                                              #72
                                              I hate academic publishers. These books looks quite interesting but they are £35 plus for a ebook or £110 for a hardback for not long books.

                                              Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game, 1945-2017
                                              Twenty20 and the Future of Cricket
                                              Cricket and National Identity in the Postcolonial Age

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                                                #73
                                                'England: A Biography' by Simon Wilde is OK but not great. Covers too much ground and some of his opinions are dodgy. You certainly do not get much analysis of matches or series: it's a cultural history done rather shallowly. Certainly no Derek Birley.

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                                                  #74
                                                  Gideon Haigh's Crossing the Line. Reasonably interesting insights into the workings of CA and the ACA, but a little lightweight on the participants of sandpapergate and their motivations. Found it ok, but got the impression that Haigh wanted to say a lot more about certain characters, esp one David Warner, than he was allowed to do, either by his lawyers or losing his entitlment to the national team and reporting of it. Available only on kindle currently.

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                                                    #75
                                                    Haigh is my favourite current cricket writer, but I'm afraid that he is spreading himself too think with a schedule that is approaching a book of year (if not more).

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