Cricket – A Portrait of the Game
Archie Mac |Published: 2024
Pages: 288
Author: Ray, Mark
Publisher: Hardie Grant
Rating: 4 stars
Back in the day, what you had as your coffee table book said a lot about you. Unfortunately, I don’t drink coffee and don’t own a coffee table, but if I did, this would be the only a book sitting on it. Cricket – A portrait of the game is one of those books that you can just pick up and enjoy. There are provocative pictures on almost every page, which will take the cricket lover back to some of the great moments of the game.
The book is professionally set out, which makes it a pleasure to peruse. The photographer, Mark Ray, informs early that he enjoys working in black and white rather than colour. B&W, appears to be a medium that allows the artist more expression and also provides more sense of reality as opposed to colour photos. Peoples’ expressions appear with more contrast than colour which allows a small glimpse into their thoughts. This is all true in the hands of a skilled photographer, which Ray clearly is.
The other advantage Ray has is his access to the cricketers’ dressing rooms at the highest level. Having played for Tasmania at first class level, Ray has captured some of the best ‘shed’ photos ever produced. Cricketers laughing, celebrating and even sleeping, provoke thoughts and senses. You can almost smell the banter and Dencorub.
The majority of the photos feature Australian cricketers and grounds, with a dedicated mini section to the late photogenic Shane Warne. In fact, I was surprised how many of the subjects featured are no longer with us. The photos of Warne, Dean Jones, Hansie Cronje and David Hookes, will bring back memories for many, of cricketers gone before their time.
All the photos have a caption and stamp date, and many have a brief summary of either how the photo came about or the subject. Ray writes some of these and the best in the business, Gideon Haigh, writes just over a dozen. None of these are longer than a page and materially add to the enjoyment of the photos. Haigh’s summary of the intelligent but ultimately forlorn Peter Roebuck is a must read.
I’m not sure how many photos there are, but I’d guess at around 300, which must have presented a difficult task for Ray to choose the best, given how many snaps professional photographs accumulate. Every reader will have their favourite. For me it’s a staged photo of the Bedser and Waugh twins, with the latter standing behind the reclining veterans. It’s taken when the Waughs are still in their playing days. My imagination went wild trying to guess the conversation and how the poses were decided. That’s the beauty of quality photographs, and however Ray made his final selections he has achieved a historic collection of images.
The book is wonderfully produced and the publishers are to be commended. I just hope it inspires the comeback of the coffee table, and I can have this sitting on mine and dip into it regularly.
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