When the first lockdown came, finding himself without cricket for the first time in his life, Geoffrey Boycott sat down and began to write a retrospective warts-and-all diary of each of his Test match appearances.
As a cricketer, Frank Worrell mesmerised spectators with his stylish play, his elegance and his classy strokes - an artist in a realm replete with talent. Apart from that finesse on the field, he epitomised the sporting characteristics associated with the finer aspects of the game: the spirit of cricket. He relentlessly advocated for more ......
When Len Hutton led the MCC to the Caribbean in 1953/54, the series was billed as the 'world championship of cricket' and described later as the most controversial since Bodyline. Who Only Cricket Know provides the first full-length account of this extraordinary tour, where a rollercoaster of a Test series was only half the story.
With a burgeoning reputation as one of the fastest bowlers in the land, Ellcock's hopes of playing Test cricket for England were cruelly thwarted by injury. Plunged into depression and forced to pursue another career, a childhood interest in aviation was to be his salvation. Ellcock relocated to the USA and qualified as a commercial airline pilot, ......
What - you may ask is the point of an English perspective on French sport? In David Owen's own words, "you might just as well seek out a sea otter's take on kabuki". Nevertheless, having lived upwards of ten per cent of his life in France, and a lot more than that immersed in French grammar, current affairs and culture, he offers exactly that in ......
He is one of the few English players with a first-class average of 40 or more not to have won a Test cap. But for a ruptured Achilles, he was told he would have been called up against West Indies in 1995. After retiring as a player aged 36, he forged a successful career as an international coach, with stints in a variety of countries including ......
Sports fans around the world were enthralled when Australia beat South Africa in that famous World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston in 1999. Among them, in a bar in Cyprus, were two holidaying Icelanders, Ragnar and Stefan. It was the first time they'd seen cricket, but they returned home determined to teach the game to their friends. They didn't know ......
A fresh edition of one of the classics of English cricket history, written by one of the game’s most talented and distinctive writers. With a mixture of detail and delight, shrewd assessment and personal appreciation, Alan Gibson tells the fascinating story of the men who have led England in its first 100 years of Test cricket: from James ......
