Cricket Books - Your favourite publications

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

I have about 20 - 30 cricket books, most of them i recieved as birthday presents and Christmas gifts.

Steve Waugh's Cricket Diary: I have most of these and generally i find they're a pretty good read. I find they provide a good insight into what happens away from the field and i was enjoy Steve Waugh's writing. Incidents that stick out from reading his diary is what happened when Gillespie and Waugh collided in 1999 in Sri Lanka. Also an incident in New Zealand at Mcdonald's when some young teenagers were sledging the Australians and Hayden fired back at the youth about his old style Adidas jumper. Apparently the youth replied "Yeah thanks mate, got it for 3 dollars from the op shop" Later on when the Australians left they got in the team minivan and someone had slashed the tyres. Obviously the young guys in the Mcdonalds.

Ricky Pontings Diary: I only have the first edition which covers 2003 to early 2004 and i must say i found it a bit disappointing. Most of the book seemed to cover the cricket and it was like reading a newspaper article describing the play. Haven't got his latest offerings.

Wouldn't mind getting Gilchrists latest offering as well.

[CrazyQ]

Haha @ slashing tyres.

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

The incident happened in 2000. From memory the Australians went to Mcdonalds to celebrate a win when they found some loudmouths.

I could just imagine Hayden slagging someone off for wearing a retro adidas jacket. Steve Waugh's big autobiography realised in 2005 was also a good read. With these things i always go to the index to look for certain characters to see Waughs thoughts on the person or incident in question.

Thought he was dead right in saying that Ian Chappell had a bit of an "I told you so mentality" and how Waugh couldnt understand what Chappell had against him. He came up with some possibilities like the fact that Waugh didnt play the hook shot or that he didnt like the bar environment and what not.

[Wallaby]

Cricket Crisis by Jack Fingleton is far and away the best factual cricket book I have read. It's about Bodyline, written by someone who played in the series. It covers the play, the politics, the economics, and the aftermath (such as the fact that it was the MCC that banned bodyline, and then only after the 1933 county season when they saw it first hand).
Yes, there is a bit of anti-Bradman bias, but we probably need some of that after hearing nothing but 'The Great Man' from everyone else.

As a bonus, it also has some other writings on famous contemporaries, matches etc. He was a very good writer.

Other than that, see if you can get a copy of A. G. McDonnell's 'England, their England'. The cricket match described in there is, by almost universal acclaim, the funniest piece of writing about cricket in literary history.

[Adelaide Hawk]

There are so many cricket books, I hardly know where to start.

I guess I'll just single out an author. I really enjoy Gideon Haigh's work, in particular "The Cricket War" and "The Summer Game".

I gave always been fascinated by events of the introduction of Packer's World Series Cricket and The Cricker War gives a full acount.

"The Summer Game" was a totally enjoyable read as I've found over the years there is very little written about Australian cricket in the 50s and 60s (the post-Bradman/pre-Chappell era) apart from captains of teams that played in that era.

[dr nick]

My favourite book of all time is a tossup between Steve Waughs 1995 windies diary and his 1999 world cup diary.

I havent actually got around to reading his others but i have them.

[OzBomber]

I have quite a few Steve Waugh biographies and auto-biographies. I got his mammoth 800 page one, but got bored of it with 100 pages to go.

Currently reading Punter's latest Diary. I like his diaries as well.

[Alpha1]

Sachin's rocks

[HawkieTalkie]

'Captains on a see-saw" by Phil Tressider is brilliant. It is about the West Indies tour of Australia in 1968-69. The way tours and test matches should be reported.

Greg Chappell's biography by Adrian McGregor is also excellent.

I absolutely hate the garbage that players bring out these days. "Marto, Pup, Pigeon and I bumped into Flemo, Blewy and Haydos" Give me a f*****g break!

[beez]

I probably have over 50. Any of the Ashes Diaries from the 90s are my favs. I love going through the old scorecards of previous series.

[raikkonen]

Steve Waugh's 1999 WC diary is a cracking read. Most of his are. Have his autobiography in arms reach of me right now, but I got about halfway through it and is just worked out that I havent picked i back up again in well, 2 years now :o

[davey_magik]

For those who haven't read Out of my comfort zone I recommend you finish it. Excellent read.

Warney's diary that was released in 2003 (Can't remember the exact year, it might have been 2002 as I know it covers the 2001 Indian series) is a pisser, reason being that it reads like it was written by a child (Lots of short sentences and little snipes at other players :D ).

I really want to read a few of Punter and Waugh's diaries. Also have the book (Forget the name) that has all players up to the end of 2003 who played 100 Tests and has little pieces on each, not a bad read that.

[jozeph]

'After stumps were drawn' the best of Ray Robinsons cricket writing, nothing springs to mind from it so I will prolly re read it, but agree with a previous poster, todays tour diaries etc are absolute garbage, another one I quite like was Roland Fishmans West Indies tour diary, caused a bit of a stir at the time because he was Greg Matthews mate at the time and not all the players were aware he was writing a book, when he was talking with them asking questions drinking at the bar, some funny stuff about Mark Waugh in there, seem to have lost the book though.

[rickyp]

There are plenty of good cricket books out there, my personal favourite was the S. Waugh mammoth. However, there are even more crap ones, Ponting's 04 (i think) diary is abysmal, and avoid Symonds' book like the plague.

[Bomber Bears]

The Vincibles is a great book

[SriLankanCat]

Cricket Crisis was a magnificent book written by a great writer...

I didnt think it was as bad to Bradman as i was expectin, there certainly were some high compliments in the book...i guess i would understand bradman not liking it though|

The Bradman years is a magnificent book as well. It was written by Jack Pollard. It was a little biased towards Bradman but ud expect that

I love cricket books. Steve Waugh's books are a great read. He is so interested in other cultures and things and it is fantastic to see him share that with other people.

Mark Waugh's book was a huge dissapointment. Mainly because he didnt write it himself. I am a huge Mark Waugh fan and he was my all time favourite cricketer.

Looking forward to reading Arjuna Ranatunga's book when he it comes out. Plenty of fireworks I am sure.