cricket books

Matty76

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Seeing as though it is nearing christmas, and a cricket book always makes for a great stocking stuffer, I thought I would take the opportunity to ask everyone:

What are some of the best cricket books you have read (and also the worst!)?

Probably my favourite book is "Captains On A See-Saw" by Phil Tresidder, about the West Indies tour of Australia in 1968-69. Today's journalists could learn much from the way he brought the games to life, so descriptive was his writing.

More recently, "Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket" by Chrtstian Ryan, is pretty uneasy reading, but absolutely fascinating at the same time.

Another favourite is "The Rebel Tours: Cricket's Crisis of Conscience" by Peter May. As someone who was too young at the time to understand the implications of the rebel tours to South Africa, I highly recommend this book, as it highlights just how divisive the tours were in the 1980's.

Finally, today I purchased "Blood, Sweat and Treason" by fromer Zimbabwe player Henry Olonga. I generally tend to read Cricket Web or Live Cricket Scores | ICC 2011 World Cup | Cricket news, statistics | ESPN Cricinfo reviews before I buy a cricket book (as I have had several shockers that I have had to, erm..pass on to the public library!), and after reading their reviews of this book I simply cannot wait to receive it!!
 
The Olonga book sounds OK. I like "By Hook or by Cut" by Les Favell. Les played his cricket in a similar way to Adam Gilchrist. He played for South Australia for 19 years and played 19 tests for Australia in the 50's and 60's. At the time of writing the book (1970) he was second only to Don Bradman in the number of interstate runs scored. He was a real dasher. He played in the "tied test" and was run out after hitting the two previous balls he received for six. Sadly, like so many of his contempories he died a young 57 in 1987.
 
You could always do worse than read David Hookes' biography "Hookesy"....although I'm a touch biased given it was written by my old man :thumbsup::

HOOKESY by DAVID HOOKES with ALAN SHIELL CRICKET BIO - eBay (item 290462950037 end time Dec-08-10 16:11:15 PST)

PM me your address Matty, I may be able to dig up a copy to send your way.


Golden Boy is a fascinating read, one of the very best cricket books of the past 10 years. was going to recommend it until i saw you already have it!!


I find a lot of cricket books a fair old yawnfest (I wouldn't waste my time reading a S waugh or Ponting tour diary if you paid me), but 'Harold Larwood' by Duncan Hamilton is an absolute beauty and definitely ranks as the best cricket book I have read...check out the reviews it receives here:

Harold Larwood: Amazon.co.uk: Duncan Hamilton: Books

'A magnificently written, intensely moving story of that rarest of breeds a great England fast bowler. ... If you want to know why the Ashes matter, you could do worse then lose yourself for a few days in the story of this great and humble man.' --Michael Atherton, the Times.

'This is cricket biography of the highest stamp, fit to compare in recent memory with Gideon Haigh's excavation of the life of Jack Iverson, David Foot's dramatic revisionism on Wally Hammond and Leo McKinstry's remarkably even-handed portrait of Geoff Boycott. Five stars.' --Wisden Cricketer.

'One of the most dramatic sporting stories of all time' Sport magazine. 'This is a brilliant book, encompassing themes way beyond the narrow confines of sport' the Times. 'Vivid portrayal of his subject ... an excellent cricket biography, one of the best of recent times. Thoroughly recommended' All Out Cricket. 'A tour de force of research and lucid prose' Independent on Sunday. 'The first biography of Larwood the scapegoat, a great bowler but a stubborn man, Hamilton has filled the gap magnificently' Sunday Times. 'Brilliant evocation and analysis of Larwood and the Bodyline series... not at one point of the superbly crafted and exhaustively gathered research of Harold Larwood is there even a hint of flagging momentum. Hamilton has given us a great and troubling story, one capable of provoking a sweep of emotion from anger to pity in the course of a few haunting pages... a book that soars into the front ranks of sports history' 'Duncan Hamilton was a deserving recipient of the 2007 William Hill Sports Book of the Year... (Harold Larwood) is an equally worthy winner... It's a great story' Independent. --Reviews.
 
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