Cricket Books

[Pratters]

I am reading parts of the Wisden Almanack 2006 right now. Next up is Out of my comfort zone , Gideon Haigh's Ashes 2005 and then John Wright's Indian Summers. Looking forward to reading much more cricket literature over the next few months. There are loads on my to read list which I hope to finish in the next 4-6 months.

 

[archie mac]

I halfway through Armstrong's 100 Greatest Cricketers. I have to say I'm enjoying it and finding it more interesting than other "list of best cricketers ever" books, like the ESPN book of a few years ago. I think I like it so much because he's picked his hundred as 9 XIs, with one "100th man" to round it out - picking a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th XI etc is a peculiar and abiding fascination for me and I'm enjoying seeing someone else do it.

Unlike the ESPN book, or even Perry's Bradman XI's books, he actually provides some discussion as to why he ranks some players higher than others, whilst always flagging that he fully expects people to disagree. Also he has achieved so far a good balance between modern, post-war, between the wars, and 'Golden Age' players. I'm certainly learning about some players I hadn't previously read much about.

Where is the review of the Perry books you were going to do?

 

[archie mac]

I am reading parts of the Wisden Almanack 2006 right now. Next up is Out of my comfort zone , Gideon Haigh's Ashes 2005 and then John Wright's Indian Summers. Looking forward to reading much more cricket literature over the next few months. There are loads on my to read list which I hope to finish in the next 4-6 months.

Good reading mate

We have reviews of both the Waugh and Haigh books up on the site. And we have one coming for the Wright book, and for a change it is not by me

 

[Pratters]

Good reading mate

We have reviews of both the Waugh and Haigh books up on the site. And we have one coming for the Wright book, and for a change it is not by me

You have done a great job with the book reviews section Archie.. Keep it up!

 

[archie mac]

You have done a great job with the book reviews section Archie.. Keep it up!

Thanks mate

 

[andyc]

On the other hand, I saw that Ponting's "Captain Diary 2006 - The Road to the Ashes" is out in the store today.

What the hell? If its out now, its obviously not including the Champion's Trophy, or probably the Malaysian series, so what does it cover? A three test tour of South Africa, a very high scoring ODI, a two test tour of Bangladesh, and a boot camp that Warnie disliked. How does that get padded out to 300 pages? The rest must be filled with random musings from Ponting. "I've often wondered why they call it tooth paste. It's not made out of teeth, and its no good for sticking things together either - I've tried"

Shudder.

 

[archie mac]

Interesting story

From the Herald Sun


Monty Panesar, England’s Sikh of Tweak, has been a bowling sensation for all of 30 seconds, but he has already signed a book deal to write his autobiography.

The deal, believed to be worth about $500,000, comes on the back of successful publishing ventures by team mates Andrew Flintoff and Vaughan. Freddies book sold 250,000 copies and Vaughan’s 100,000.

Striker Wayne Rooney, for one signed a deal worth about $10 million, but the first volume sold just 13,700 copies. Reviews suggested this figure was generous.

The Times, said this was not surprising “ given that its most revealing fact is that his house has six bedrooms and a big kitchen, which is very modern and greyish”.

 

[pasag]

Just bought 3 cricket books on advice from Pratyush:

Beyond a Boundary - CLR James
A Fair Feild and No Favour: The Ashes 2005 - Gideon Haigh
Out of My Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh

Cost like 100 bucks. Can't wait to get stuck into them.

 

[Matt79]

Where is the review of the Perry books you were going to do?

Its still sitting on my computer - I really need to apologise to you for that. I'd done a first draft, flicked back through the book, decided my (fairly uncomplimentary) review was actually quite unfair, then got hit with a ton of work - you might have noticed I didn't post at all for about 3-4 months there. I've thought of trying to dig it out a few times, but again, finding the time to sit down and write something decent is proving a challenge.

where's the emo for :shame: ?

 

[Matt79]

Just bought 3 cricket books on advice from Pratyush:

Beyond a Boundary - CLR James
A Fair Feild and No Favour: The Ashes 2005 - Gideon Haigh
Out of My Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh

Cost like 100 bucks. Can't wait to get stuck into them.

You've got to find a decent second hand book store. I got that SBS "Celebration of Cricket" that came out about a year or two ago, and is still $50 new for $14 at Canty's in Canberra, along with Garry Sober's "My Autobiography" for $9.

 

[archie mac]

Just bought 3 cricket books on advice from Pratyush:

Beyond a Boundary - CLR James
A Fair Feild and No Favour: The Ashes 2005 - Gideon Haigh
Out of My Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh

Cost like 100 bucks. Can't wait to get stuck into them.

I would read them in this order, BaB can be a little hard going, still a cricket classic


A Fair Feild and No Favour: The Ashes 2005 - Gideon Haigh
Out of My Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh
Beyond a Boundary - CLR James

 

[archie mac]

Its still sitting on my computer - I really need to apologise to you for that. I'd done a first draft, flicked back through the book, decided my (fairly uncomplimentary) review was actually quite unfair, then got hit with a ton of work - you might have noticed I didn't post at all for about 3-4 months there. I've thought of trying to dig it out a few times, but again, finding the time to sit down and write something decent is proving a challenge.

where's the emo for :shame: ?

No worries mate, when ever you have the time

 

[archie mac]

An amazing life Sir Aubrey Smith

 

[PhoenixFire]

Leo McKinstry's book on Boycott, very interesting.

 

[archie mac]

Leo McKinstry's book on Boycott, very interesting.

Yes, one of the best bios I have read, we have a small review of it on the site

 

[archie mac]

Okay I have been a busy boy, three new book reviews

The latest by Gideon Haigh[http://cricketweb.net/content/bookreview.php?NewsIDAuto=2823] Silent Revolutions [/url]

Alex Buzo Legends of The Baggy Green

Just about every cricket term you could imagine Cricket Lexion

 

[luffy]

The Warwick Todd books are awesome

 

[archie mac]

The Warwick Todd books are awesome

Reviews?

 

[archie mac]

Another Haigh book review, four stars for this one


Gideon Haigh Ashes Anecdotes

 

[The Sean]

I halfway through Armstrong's 100 Greatest Cricketers. I have to say I'm enjoying it and finding it more interesting than other "list of best cricketers ever" books, like the ESPN book of a few years ago. I think I like it so much because he's picked his hundred as 9 XIs, with one "100th man" to round it out - picking a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th XI etc is a peculiar and abiding fascination for me and I'm enjoying seeing someone else do it.

Unlike the ESPN book, or even Perry's Bradman XI's books, he actually provides some discussion as to why he ranks some players higher than others, whilst always flagging that he fully expects people to disagree. Also he has achieved so far a good balance between modern, post-war, between the wars, and 'Golden Age' players. I'm certainly learning about some players I hadn't previously read much about.

Mate, I'm reading the same book and picking my eqivalent 9 XIs...safe to say that KR Miller makes it a lot higher than the 4th XI where Armstrong picked him (I'm not sure anyone outside Kapil Dev's own immediate family has ever ranked him higher than Miller)! Also interesting that he makes no bones about not buying into some of the "myths" that surround some players and ranking them lower than is fashionable (such as Ponsford, Grimmett, even Nugget to a lesser extent). I'd be interested to see what your 9 XIs would be.

I'm really enjoying the book too though - he did a similar book a couple of years ago called Top 10s of Australian cricket, where he also took a different approach to ranking players - he divided up the history of Australian cricket into 10 "eras" and then picked the best player from each era, before ranking them in order to make his Top 10. The rationale being that oft-quoted maxim that a champion in one era would be a champion in any other era so his list was representative of all cricket history. Again, I didn't necessarily agree with his order, but it made for interesting reading.