Your top 5 cricket books

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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Dogwatcher » Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:36 am

am Bays wrote:OK a new number one - with a bullet: The Keepers By Malcolm Knox.

As I said below, as a poor keeper who loved spending my summers behind the sticks trying to make my bowlers and fielders look good got this on christmas day and was hesitant to read it as I thought it might be a just a re-hash of Pollards book from 1993. However this is 360 odd pages of 'Keepingology Gold. Knox has interviewed all the living Australian Test keeprs to do this book (except Neville as obviously his deadline preceeded the 2nd 2015 Lords test). He has used his prior research in writing Never a Gentlemans Game to write on the likes of Blackham, Murdoch, Kelly and Carter and then used interviews and research to discuss the keepers since Oldfield. The best bits are the discussions of the nearly never was's Maddocks, Taber, McLean, Wright who either had to wait long times to get a crack or because of selection perceptions or team needs only got a few tests or had there careers cut short. Great book, makes me want to get the kit bag and bring out the old faithfulls or find a brick wall and do the old golf drill up to 100 again!

For me once i started reading this i couldn't put it down unless I had to do in the finest traditions of Marshy, get another beer....


am Bays wrote:From the Steve Smith captaincy test thread I was inspired by Footy Smart's and Dogwatcher's comment on cricket books (of which I've got a few :D )

It got me thinking what are you're favourite cricket books? Borrowing from the move High Fidelity where Rob, Barry and Dick spent most of the time discussing their top 5 albums/songs for whatever; what are your top 5 cricket books in your collection?

Mine:

1. The Gloveman - Jack Pollard
As a 'keeper I'm naturally drawn to history of the trade I plied poorly on the cricket field but loved watching on the TV. My favourite bit of cricket footage is: Butcher St Healy b Bevan at Old Trafford in 1997. A brilliant legside stumping from a ball that just kept drifting down leg side by the best 'Keeper I've ever seen. To read of the likes of: Blackham, Carter, Oldfield, Duckworth, Tallon. Langley, Grout, Knott, Taylor, Marsh and Bari is just magic and Pollard has a good easy ready writing style. I love his other works too such as Six and Out which I couldn't find a spot for here.

2. Border and Beyond - Mark Ray
A critical look at the years of Border's captaincy by former first class cricketer Mark Ray who was able to get on the inside of the Australian team to an extent due to his playing background (doubled as a net bowler whilst he was part of the Poison Typewriters Club - nod to DK). This is a really good read as Australia rose from being an also rans in 1984 to the challenging the West indies for the title of dominant test nation in 1994. it illustrates Borders personal growth from reluctant test captain to the outstanding leader he was and how the likes of Boon, Marsh, Jones, and Healey would support him in his role.

3. Never a Gentlemans game - Malcolm Knox
As I said before if you think any of the current cricket controversies are new in the last 40 years think again. All been done before in the same period 100 years earlier. Got a bit hard to read at times due to Knox quoting and referencing multiple sources and at times I thought he was showing too much bias to the players argument against the then administrators. Still a damn good read though and made me more aware of what is referred to over in the home country as "The Golden Age of cricket. Malcolm also wrote one of my other favourite books Taylor and beyond which looked at the Mark Taylor years as test captain but not as well IMO as Ray looks at the Border years.

4. Golden Boy - Christopher Ryan
The unauthorised "biography" of Kim Hughes due to the fact he didn't want to dredge up old wounds that he had healed with Marsh and Lillee. Really looks at that turbulent 10 years of Australian cricket from 1977 to 1987 as he was seen as the Golden haired establishment boy who was thrust up against the big three WSC boys of Chappell, Marsh and Lillee. The book exposes the depth of ill-feeling at the time in WA and Australian cricket and culminates with the Rebel tours of South Africa and how Hughes became involved in it. A thoroughly good read that took me back to my time when I first started watching this game on the ABC (1978-79) and my first real cricket hero Rodney Marsh.

5. Extra Cover- Jack Egan
A book I read three times cover to cover when I first got it (well we were driving from Darwin to Adelaide for holidays in 1989) This book is a collection of interviews jack Egan did with various cricket identities in late 1988 and early 1989. it includes but is not limited to then current test umpires, players (M Taylor, M Hughes and T May to name but a few) Shield cricketers, Cricket Commentators, former players, journalists, administrators, coaches, Australian medical staff, fans and selectors. it is a good read and a bit of marker in history for what was happening in Australian cricket right before we started to dominate the cricket world through the 90s.

HMs to:
6. First Tests - Sam Connell
7. The Chappell Era - Mike Coward
8. Six and out - Jack Pollard
9. The Game is Not the Same - Norm Tasker with Alan McGilvray
10. Bowlology - Damien Flemming (semi autobiographical, self deprecating, anecdotal p!ss funny insight into Australian cricket during the Bowlologists playing era)



How good was it, AmBays? I read it in two days. Excellent book with some fresh takes on things. I loved the way he linked their injuries and also the angst caused when a keeper is replaced. The book explained why these things occurred in a fresh context, it's not just about state-based rivalries, but it's a deep-seated need for the security a keeper provides.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Dogwatcher » Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:38 am

I've started playing as a bowler this season - first time since I was 15.
This book reminded me why I loved being behind the sticks.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby am Bays » Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:54 am

Dogwatcher wrote:I've started playing as a bowler this season - first time since I was 15.
This book reminded me why I loved being behind the sticks.


Being behind the sticks - my best memories in life* are from behind the sticks:

Keeping to McGrath, Kasper, Gillespie, Tait, Warne and McGill at the Australian team practice in Darwin in 2004
Leg side stumping at Mclaren Vale off a medium pacer in 1997
Screamer I took in the Grannie in Darwin in 2004

Days walking off the field at stumps, you've had no chances but there are no byes and your hands aren't sore - ultimate keepers stat - no mistakes. No teammates say anything to you, as they don't get it, but you know

*(outside the kids and getting hitched :) )
Let that be a lesson to you Port, no one beats the Bays five times in a row in a GF and gets away with it!!!
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Dogwatcher » Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:58 am

Leg-side stumpings, or when keeping up to the quicks are always worth remembering.

I loved playing in the country carnival. That was great fun. Keeping to Drew Crane on an overcast day at Sturt and not seeing the ball until it was five to 10 metres away, that was fun. Challenging and I loved it.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby robranisgod » Fri Jan 01, 2016 1:16 pm

FlyingHigh wrote:
robranisgod wrote:The best cricket book I have ever read was "Ten for Sixty Six and All that" by Arthur Mailey.

The piece on Mailey bowling to Trumper in a grade game in Sydney is one of the best chapters of any book I have ever read, sport or otherwise.

Mailey took 10 for 66 for Australia against Gloucestershire in 1921. He jokingly said that he could have taken 10 for 36 but it wouldn't have made nearly as good a title for a book.

I am a huge fan of Gideon Haigh but I was very disappointed in "Cricket War" given the rave reviews that it has got over the years from every respected critic. I know that history is written by the victors but Haigh has many factual inaccuracies and he doesn't give any regard to the fact that the young cricketers who went to WSC by and large failed to impact test cricket after the truce, yet the ACB side produced players of the ilk of Border and Hughes as well as very serviceable test cricketers like Wood, Yallop, Hogg, Dymock and Higgs.


Your last point is a good one rig, given the general impression, both from the book and other sources was that the ACB was on it's knees.
Can you enlighten us as to some of the errors in the book? Not doubting you, just that I was young when I read it and it was seminal to me at the time.


Sorry I haven't responded earlier, but I wanted to read the book again before airing my problems with it.

I think the main problem with the book is that given that Haigh turned 50 a couple of days ago he was only 12-13 years of age when World Series Cricket took place and thus didn't have an "adult" view of what happened at the time.

I think the book should have had at least a chapter on why the WSC selectors made so many mistakes with the choosing of the players. Rob Langer, Martin Kent, Trevor Chappell, Ray Bright and Dennis Yagmich for starters weren't a patch on Border, Hughes etc. Also the fact that there were no India players in World Series Cricket certainly rated some consideration.

Haigh's mocking of Phil Ridings was just downright wrong. He makes fun of the fact that Ridings said that the 1978-79 series was much closer than the 5-1 scoreline indicated. Australia certainly should have won the 4th test in Sydney and probably the 5th test in Adelaide. England benefited from some of the worst umpiring I have ever seen in Sydney. One umpire even apologised to Yallop at the end of the third day when he gave Randall not out before he had scored. Randall went on to score 150. Given that Australia led after the first inning by 116, I doubt that England would have recovered from 2 wickets for 0 in the second innings. England went on to win by 95 runs when Australia had to bat on a badly deteriorating wicket. In Adelaide, Australia had England 6 for 132 with all recognised batsmen out in the second innings after leading by a few runs on the first innings. Australia's lack of strong leadership let England slip out of that noose.

There is no mention in the book of how Sydney-Melbourne centric WSC became in the second year. Adelaide would have been bypassed completely if it hadn't been for Des Corcoran pleading Adelaide's case, thus we got one exhibition WSC one day match.

Haigh concentrates on the poor traditional crowds at Melbourne and Sydney but again fails to even consider that Adelaide drew good crowds to the test match despite being a dead rubber, similar in size to the 1970-71 England tour. Sure Adelaide's crowds fell away compared to 1974-75, but 1974-75 saw record crowds with Thomson and Lillee at the peak.

I am not denying that WSC was wonderful for cricketers and that telecasting of cricket improved markedly, I just thought that Haigh took a very blinkered view in his book. I repeat there should have been criticisms of WSC where they were warranted.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Ron Burgundy » Fri Jan 01, 2016 7:22 pm

Dogwatcher wrote:Leg-side stumpings, or when keeping up to the quicks are always worth remembering.

I loved playing in the country carnival. That was great fun. Keeping to Drew Crane on an overcast day at Sturt and not seeing the ball until it was five to 10 metres away, that was fun. Challenging and I loved it.


Drew was quick.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Wedgie » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:32 am

Chris Gayle's Pickup Lines, Volumes 1-5.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Booney » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:43 am

Wedgie wrote:Chris Gayle's Pickup Lines, Volumes 1-5.


Volume 1 is shit.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby GWW » Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:42 pm

An interesting insight into a few Aussie players over the last few decades - http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/aus ... 29e76d0f87
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby saintal » Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:54 pm

Recently read "The Grade Cricketer". Loosely based on the life of a weekend warrior/hack playing low level grade cricket. An easy and entertaining read. If you've played cricket long enough you can easily relate to many of the stories/characters.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby bennymacca » Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:39 pm

saintal wrote:Recently read "The Grade Cricketer". Loosely based on the life of a weekend warrior/hack playing low level grade cricket. An easy and entertaining read. If you've played cricket long enough you can easily relate to many of the stories/characters.


The grade cricketer Facebook and twitter accounts are sensational
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby jo172 » Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:43 am

On that it's very worthwhile tracking down a copy of "The Vincibles" by Gideon Haigh. His chronicle of a season of his local turf South Yarra Cricket Club. Very well written take on the universal problems of local sporting clubs.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby RustyCage » Sun Nov 20, 2016 5:01 pm

Coming up to Christmas now, surely there'll be more book released in the coming weeks
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Booney » Tue Nov 29, 2016 12:28 pm

RustyCage wrote:Coming up to Christmas now, surely there'll be more book released in the coming weeks


Boof Lehmann,Brad Haddin,Mark Nicholas,Chris Rogers, Brad Hogg and Mitch Johnson have all just put books out.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Lightning McQueen » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:25 pm

Booney wrote:
RustyCage wrote:Coming up to Christmas now, surely there'll be more book released in the coming weeks


Boof Lehmann,Brad Haddin,Mark Nicholas,Chris Rogers, Brad Hogg and Mitch Johnson have all just put books out.

Chris Rogers.............LOL.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Lightning McQueen » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:28 pm

Callum Ferguson is re;leasing a book soon too: When I come around.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Booney » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:29 pm

Lightning McQueen wrote:
Booney wrote:
RustyCage wrote:Coming up to Christmas now, surely there'll be more book released in the coming weeks


Boof Lehmann,Brad Haddin,Mark Nicholas,Chris Rogers, Brad Hogg and Mitch Johnson have all just put books out.

Chris Rogers.............LOL.


I see your Chris Rogers and raise you a Brad Hogg.
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby Booney » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:29 pm

Lightning McQueen wrote:Callum Ferguson is re;leasing a book soon too: When I come around.


It's called "Wake me up when November ends"
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby heater31 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:31 pm

Lightning McQueen wrote:
Booney wrote:
RustyCage wrote:Coming up to Christmas now, surely there'll be more book released in the coming weeks


Boof Lehmann,Brad Haddin,Mark Nicholas,Chris Rogers, Brad Hogg and Mitch Johnson have all just put books out.

Chris Rogers.............LOL.

Reckon Bucky could have some interesting stories to tell....played a lot of cricket and from all reports a completely different cat off the field than his on field persona!
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Re: Your top 5 cricket books

Postby stampy » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:33 pm

heard he was prickly character early in his career
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