Cricket books

Tugga27

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Found Sachin Tendulkars autobiography "Playing it my way" to be quite a uninspiring, boring read. Was really hoping it would give a great insight into his mind but it failed to do it for me. Glossed over controversial incidents like he didn't want to talk about it, which is what I wanted to read about rather than what movies he liked or what food he ate. Also the way it was written, seemed liked he was never wrong once in his life. I love Sachin, but would have liked to have read about times he made some mistakes, rather than just his success.
Doesn't surprise me TBH.

Great bat but just seemed to be either shy or have not much of a personality.
 

corbies

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I pretty much wore out the book of Aussie test cricket when I was a kid. Had a summary of every test played in Australia until about 1980. Unfortunately I lost it somewhere along the way. Have since picked up the sister book of overseas tests.
Was this 200 seasons of Australian cricket?
 
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got this as a little kid after being glued to the tv watching that year. cemented my interest despite having no idea of the technical aspects of what i was reading about.

s-l1600.jpg
 
got this as a little kid after being glued to the tv watching that year. cemented my interest despite having no idea of the technical aspects of what i was reading about.

s-l1600.jpg
I got those every Christmas as a kid, got a complete run from the first series of WSC to 1996. Those books helped teach me to read.
 
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Was this 200 seasons of Australian cricket?

That book was first published in 1997, re-published in 2004, so I doubt that would be it. I thought he may have been referring to a book "Australian Test Cricket Facts: 1946-1978" by Edward Stokes, published in 1979. I don't think he covered the pre-WWII period.
 

big_e

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I'm guessing there must have been some resentment in that dressing room that Kim was captain. Some of the players of that era still like to play up the tough guy image that they had in the 70s now they are coming up to their 70s. Kim on the other hand has always been known as one of the game's nice guys and with the bat was a kind of strokeplayer who was never on edge.
The book tells the story of Lillee bouncing the crap out of Hughes when they first met - Lillee was a test player and Hughes about 14 or 15 years old.

On a related note, I'm reading Malcolm Knox's Never a gentleman's game, about the early years of test cricket (and the years leading up to it).

Cricket 2.0, about T20, is really interesting, too.
 

Tugga27

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Just started reading 'The Great Hijack', a behind-the-scenes look into the WSC origins. Crucially, it was written within a year of the actual events.

Gotta love second-hand and op shops for finding stuff like this!
I'll have a look for it.
Mind saying who the author is?
 

Silly Mid On

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I have just finished reading "Bradman's War" by Malcolm Knox - which is about the 1948 Invincibles Tour.

A really fascinating read. Obviously it looks at each of the tests and the primary county games. What I found really fascinating about it was the way the context was set, and the legacy the tour left, including for Bradman.

In particular, the War saw cricketers from both England and Australia fight... and when the war was over, those who fought were hoping that cricket would return to a more peaceable past time, rather than being played in the battle hardened manner in which it was played in the 1930's (e.g. Bodyline, bouncer attacks, England letting Australia field for 3 days as they amassed 900+ (primarily via Hutton)).

But Bradman had other ideas. He wanted to win, and the book explores how
1. He never forgot if he was wronged in the past;
2. The manner in which England thought Australia (I.e. Bradman) pushed the lines of gamesmanship to win (e.g. 1. England did not have express bowlers, so whilst Australia employed Bouncer attacks via Lindwall and Miller, England could not retaliate.... the English coped it, but weren't impressed, considering Australia's repudiation of Bodyline in the 30's 2. Bradman was close with one of the main English selectors (Robins). Very close friends, and the book infers that Bradman had a hand in potential selections for England in the series (Bradman most feared Hutton, England's best bat. He was dropped for the 3rd test after having shied away from bouncers in the second test at Lord's. It is believed that Bradman may have had a hand in his being dropped as the book explains). 3. One of the final games of the tour was a first class festival game at the Scarborough fair. This was the game which Armstrong's Australian team of 1921 had failed to win - their only loss of the tour - where they were ambushed by a test strength team. The selectors for the 'English' team were planning on playing a test strength team, Bradman objected on the ground that the festival game ought to be about relaxation and exhibitionism (because he feared losing) and in the end only 6 English test players were selected - whilst Bradman fielded the Australian test strength team).

Many of the Australians and English were friends - especially those who fought in the war together. Of course Bradman had not fought in the war (though he wanted to) due to his health. The war, and participation in it impacted the way all of the players approached their cricket after the war.

In the end, Australia went through the tour undefeated. And whilst England and many of the English players could not fault Bradman's batting, they did question how he played the game, especially in light of the war.

I highly recommend this read.

I'm going on to another of Knox's books now " Never a Gentlemen's Game", which looks at the "wild west" of crickets earliest days in the late 1800s and into the golden age.
 
I was an avid cricket book collector when I was younger. Not so much now.

Got complete collections of Playfair Cricket Monthly, Cricketer (the Australian one), Australian Cricket and others.

Got HB Wisdens back to 1950 (bar one or two which I need to get), complete set of things like Cricketer Annual, Australian Cricket Yearbook, Playfair Cricket Annual, etc.

Plus plenty of bios, autobios, anthologies, tour books, etc.

I've been a member of the ACSH since 1975, so I have all their journals, F-C match books, state/country cricketers books, etc.

It would all be worth thousands.

My books/mags are all over the place at the moment due to the state of my house but I am looking forward to having them back in some sort of order soon-ish.
 
I was an avid cricket book collector when I was younger. Not so much now.

Got complete collections of Playfair Cricket Monthly, Cricketer (the Australian one), Australian Cricket and others.

Got HB Wisdens back to 1950 (bar one or two which I need to get), complete set of things like Cricketer Annual, Australian Cricket Yearbook, Playfair Cricket Annual, etc.

Plus plenty of bios, autobios, anthologies, tour books, etc.

I've been a member of the ACSH since 1975, so I have all their journals, F-C match books, state/country cricketers books, etc.

It would all be worth thousands.

My books/mags are all over the place at the moment due to the state of my house but I am looking forward to having them back in some sort of order soon-ish.
My Wisden collecting started with a cancelled Croydon Library 1985 HB without a dust jacket that my Nanna sent me one Christmas, she might as well have sent me crack because that one book has cost me a small fortune in time and money since. Still got the book, needless to say it's been replaced by one with a dust jacket now.
 

big_e

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I have just finished reading "Bradman's War" by Malcolm Knox - which is about the 1948 Invincibles Tour.

A really fascinating read. Obviously it looks at each of the tests and the primary county games. What I found really fascinating about it was the way the context was set, and the legacy the tour left, including for Bradman.

In particular, the War saw cricketers from both England and Australia fight... and when the war was over, those who fought were hoping that cricket would return to a more peaceable past time, rather than being played in the battle hardened manner in which it was played in the 1930's (e.g. Bodyline, bouncer attacks, England letting Australia field for 3 days as they amassed 900+ (primarily via Hutton)).

But Bradman had other ideas. He wanted to win, and the book explores how
1. He never forgot if he was wronged in the past;
2. The manner in which England thought Australia (I.e. Bradman) pushed the lines of gamesmanship to win (e.g. 1. England did not have express bowlers, so whilst Australia employed Bouncer attacks via Lindwall and Miller, England could not retaliate.... the English coped it, but weren't impressed, considering Australia's repudiation of Bodyline in the 30's 2. Bradman was close with one of the main English selectors (Robins). Very close friends, and the book infers that Bradman had a hand in potential selections for England in the series (Bradman most feared Hutton, England's best bat. He was dropped for the 3rd test after having shied away from bouncers in the second test at Lord's. It is believed that Bradman may have had a hand in his being dropped as the book explains). 3. One of the final games of the tour was a first class festival game at the Scarborough fair. This was the game which Armstrong's Australian team of 1921 had failed to win - their only loss of the tour - where they were ambushed by a test strength team. The selectors for the 'English' team were planning on playing a test strength team, Bradman objected on the ground that the festival game ought to be about relaxation and exhibitionism (because he feared losing) and in the end only 6 English test players were selected - whilst Bradman fielded the Australian test strength team).

Many of the Australians and English were friends - especially those who fought in the war together. Of course Bradman had not fought in the war (though he wanted to) due to his health. The war, and participation in it impacted the way all of the players approached their cricket after the war.

In the end, Australia went through the tour undefeated. And whilst England and many of the English players could not fault Bradman's batting, they did question how he played the game, especially in light of the war.

I highly recommend this read.

I'm going on to another of Knox's books now " Never a Gentlemen's Game", which looks at the "wild west" of crickets earliest days in the late 1800s and into the golden age.
I'm partway into Never a Gentleman's Game. Really detailed picture of an era I knew very little about.

I read Adam Zwar's 12 Summers the last couple of days - a memoir of his writing and acting career intertwined with significant cricket moments that happened at the same time. Good light Christmas read.

And then at the library I just picked up Border's Battlers, about the Tied Test, and Front Foot - a whole book about the change to the no-ball law. Looks interesting.
 

Stopher

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I heard a snippet of an interview on ABC radio about a book called 'The Unforgiven', about the West Indian players who joined the Rebel Tours of the 80s in apartheid South Africa.

Sounds interesting.
 

Stopher

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I have just finished reading "Bradman's War" by Malcolm Knox - which is about the 1948 Invincibles Tour.

A really fascinating read. Obviously it looks at each of the tests and the primary county games. What I found really fascinating about it was the way the context was set, and the legacy the tour left, including for Bradman.

In particular, the War saw cricketers from both England and Australia fight... and when the war was over, those who fought were hoping that cricket would return to a more peaceable past time, rather than being played in the battle hardened manner in which it was played in the 1930's (e.g. Bodyline, bouncer attacks, England letting Australia field for 3 days as they amassed 900+ (primarily via Hutton)).

But Bradman had other ideas. He wanted to win, and the book explores how
1. He never forgot if he was wronged in the past;
2. The manner in which England thought Australia (I.e. Bradman) pushed the lines of gamesmanship to win (e.g. 1. England did not have express bowlers, so whilst Australia employed Bouncer attacks via Lindwall and Miller, England could not retaliate.... the English coped it, but weren't impressed, considering Australia's repudiation of Bodyline in the 30's 2. Bradman was close with one of the main English selectors (Robins). Very close friends, and the book infers that Bradman had a hand in potential selections for England in the series (Bradman most feared Hutton, England's best bat. He was dropped for the 3rd test after having shied away from bouncers in the second test at Lord's. It is believed that Bradman may have had a hand in his being dropped as the book explains). 3. One of the final games of the tour was a first class festival game at the Scarborough fair. This was the game which Armstrong's Australian team of 1921 had failed to win - their only loss of the tour - where they were ambushed by a test strength team. The selectors for the 'English' team were planning on playing a test strength team, Bradman objected on the ground that the festival game ought to be about relaxation and exhibitionism (because he feared losing) and in the end only 6 English test players were selected - whilst Bradman fielded the Australian test strength team).

Many of the Australians and English were friends - especially those who fought in the war together. Of course Bradman had not fought in the war (though he wanted to) due to his health. The war, and participation in it impacted the way all of the players approached their cricket after the war.

In the end, Australia went through the tour undefeated. And whilst England and many of the English players could not fault Bradman's batting, they did question how he played the game, especially in light of the war.

I highly recommend this read.

I'm going on to another of Knox's books now " Never a Gentlemen's Game", which looks at the "wild west" of crickets earliest days in the late 1800s and into the golden age.

This sounds great. Bradman as a batsman was without peer. Off field? He was a calculating campaigner at times, with emphasis on campaigner.
 

Tugga27

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Just started reading Pushing the Boundaries: Cricket in the Eighties by Derek Pringle.
Really good so far.

If anyone wants an epub version, let me know.
I also have Greg Chappell's latest and a few others.
 
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Yep
Nicko's book is a cracking read.

Most of Gideon Haighs stuff is well worth a read as well.
I particularly liked his first cricket book, "The Cricket War", which covers the events of the introduction of World Series Cricket, and the other one I like is "The Summer Game" which covers Australian cricket between the years of 1949-1971, a period where very little had been written about previously.

Anyone read/got Mystery Spinner by Haigh?
 
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