It's Raining Bats and Pads: The Story of Lancashire County Cricket Club 1988-1996 vividly captures the sporting and cultural landscape of the late 1980s to mid-90s, and shows the sea change between then and now. It's a romantic jaunt through the halcyon days of Mike Atherton, Neil Fairbrother and Wasim Akram as seen through the eyes of the author, who as a child and young adult lived through that era. It harks back to the glory days of lazy linseed summers when life was much simpler, time was not strictly of the essence and kids had to entertain themselves. Although primarily a tale of Lancashire's success on the field - punctuated by some lively spectator incidents at the grounds - the book also explores broader societal questions. Is the game in a better place now? Has the standard of cricket improved? Has freedom of choice caused the game's popularity to fall among the young? And is the Hundred an allegory for a society that simply can't wait for better?

A new edition of Rob Eastaway's classic guide to the rules of cricket. Cricket is one of the world's most popular sports, yet for the uninitiated, its peculiar laws and customs are a mystery. What is a 'silly mid off' and a 'long leg'? How can you be 'lbw'? And how can a match last for five days and still end up as a draw? In this fully updated edition of the classic guide, Rob Eastaway demystifies the jargon and answers the questions you've always wanted to ask. It's also a timely reminder that for the true cricket lover, the game can be absorbing and exciting even when the ball isn't being smashed for six.

Cricket is blessed with quality prose and gifted writing. The nobles and gentlemen who brought the game of cricket from England's villages to the pavilion at Lord's were often as equally blessed with the gift of wit and banter as they were with leather and willow. Their turns of phrase, intellectual insights and outlandish observations were as likely to knock you for six as to leave you stumped. The Little Book of Cricket encapsulates their often hilarious, sometimes sombre and occasionally downright bizarre quotes as the greats of the game, from Don Bradman to Steve Waugh and Ian Botham to Freddie Flintoff, all describe their beloved sport in their own words. 'He's got it, England have won the World Cup by the barest of margins... Absolute ecstasy for England, agony, agony for New Zealand.' Ian Smith, New Zealand commentor, calling that crucial final ball of the super over. 'He lifted the game from a state of conventional excitement to one of unbelievable suspense and drama and finally into the realm of romantic fiction.' Henry Blofeld, on a then 18-year-old Ian Botham, 1974.

Shortlisted for Cricket Book of the Year at the British Sports Book Awards Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England v Australia battles, having played in three series wins and also the whitewash defeat of 2013-14 when its intensity ended his international career. However, it brought out some of his best displays in Test cricket. But he is just one of dozens of colourful characters to have added their chapters to this great tome. The mock obituary of English cricket in the Sporting Times of 1882 was the forerunner of summers and winters of heaven and hell, depending on which side of the divide you were situated. When it comes to on-field relations nothing quite compares to the over-my-dead-body feel of the Ashes. From Grace to Sir Don, the most graceful of them all. From the foulest play to the fairest - contrast the 1932-33 Bodyline series affair to the image of Andrew Flintoff hunched over a distraught Brett Lee in 2005. From Ray Illingworth's famous walk-off in the Seventies, when an England team-mate was assaulted by a spectator, to Steve Waugh's hugely emotional lap of honour when he retired a quarter of a century later. Swann's book will reveal the magic of a series that first gripped him in his front room in Northampton as an aspiring spin bowler in the mid-1980s.

This is an exacting social history of Indian cricket between 1780 and 1947. It considers cricket as a derivative sport, creatively adapted to suit modern Indian socio-cultural needs, fulfil political imperatives and satisfy economic aspirations. Majumdar argues that cricket was a means to cross class barriers and had a healthy following even outside the aristocracy and upper middle classes well over a century ago. Indeed, in some ways, the democratization of the sport anticipated the democratization of the Indian polity itself. Boria Majumdar reveals the appropriation, assimilation and subversion of cricketing ideals in colonial and post-colonial India for nationalist ends. He exposes a sport rooted in the contingencies of the colonial and post-colonial context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century India. Cricket, to put it simply, is much more than a 'game' for Indians. This study describes how the genealogy of their intense engagement with cricket stretches back over a century. It is concerned not only with the game but also with the end of cricket as a mere sport, with Indian cricket's commercial revolution in the 1930s, with ideals and idealism and their relative unimportance, with the decline of morality for reasons of realpolitik, and with the denunciation, once and for all, of the view that sport and politics do not mix. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport

The perfect gift for every cricket fan When was the first Ashes held? Who holds the highest individual Test runs score? And what exactly is a silly mid-off? Find the answer to all these and more inside The Cricket Pocket Bible, a pocket compendium of cricketing trivia and titbits about one of the world's most popular sports. Inside, debate the teams and the triumphs, defend the clubs and the competitions and discover how the quintessentially 'English' game of cricket became so popular in places as far afield as Australia, India and the West Indies. You'll also find practical information in The Cricket Pocket Bible - like the rules of playing cricket, how to kit yourself out in cricket gear, how to explain all the cricketing fielding positions and even how to bowl a googly. This pocket guide will take you through all the highlights of cricket, from the longest Test Match to the most unusual cricket match locations. Find out about memorable cricket World Cup moments, the history of the game, as well as the origin of the name and facts about famous cricket players from Brian Lara and Ian Botham to Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. Inside The Cricket Pocket Bible you'll also find out about cricket etiquette, different forms of cricket around the world, how cricket has evolved with advances in technology and information on famous locations such as Lord's Cricket Ground - home to the world's oldest sporting museum. Whether you're a seasoned supporter like Mick Jagger or a recent cricket convert, The Cricket Pocket Bible is guaranteed to educate, enlighten and entertain every lover of the world-renowned game. So whether you're already an avid cricket fan or simply enjoy watching an afternoon's cricket at The Oval, Trent Bridge or Edgbaston, if you want to get all the essential information about cricket - from cricket players and cricket grounds to umpires and cricketing records - sit back with The Cricket Pocket Bible today. It won't have you stumped. 'I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth' Harold Pinter 'At its best, cricket is the most wonderful entertainment in the world' Michael Parkinson 'A cricketer's life is a life of splendid freedom, healthy effort, endless variety, and delightful good fellowship.' W.G. Grace 'It doesn't matter how pretty you look, it's how many runs you get' Steve Waugh This beautiful hardback edition has both dust-cover and gold embossing on the spine making it the perfect gift. Every Pocket Bible is lovingly crafted to give you a unique mix of useful references, handy tips and fascinating trivia that will enlighten and entertain you at every page. There is a Pocket Bible for everyone... Other titles in the series: The Rugby Pocket Bible, The Football pocket Bible, The Camping Pocket Bible, The DIY Pocket Bible and The Christmas Pocket Bible.

Of all games, cricket has long prided itself on its ethical traditions, but to modern sceptics the idea of cricket encapsulating a higher morality is actually something of a myth. Playing the Game? looks at the changing ethics of cricket, from its gentlemanly roots right up until the present day. After decades of sledging, intimidatory bowling, blatant gamesmanship and dissent, the MCC adopted `The Spirit of Cricket' in 2000 in an attempt to reclaim the game's original ethos - but was it already too late? While the concept is a noble one, its impact has so far been limited, as award-winning cricket scribe Mark Peel explains. As well as looking back to the infamous Bodyline series of 1932/33, Peel also investigates the effects of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket; takes the ICC to task on their failure to quell rowdy behaviour and gamesmanship; examines the double standards of Western cricketing nations towards Pakistan; and delves into the recent ball-tampering affair that has tainted Aussie cricket.

*Standard format hardback* Wisden 2019 charts the rise and rise of the England one-day team as they head towards a home World Cup in the summer. It also revisits the 1979 tournament, when England made it to the final, but lost out to Clive Lloyd's all-conquering West Indians. Jon Hotten lifts the covers on the tricky life of the groundsman, under pressure from player and administrator alike, while Richard Hobson examines how cricket began again in 1919, a few months after the end of the First World War. Jonathan Liew considers the traditional measure of the batsman's art, 250 years after the first century was recorded. There's a look beyond the cricket ground, too, now that Imran Khan, one of the towering figures of Pakistan cricket, has become prime minister. Peter Oborne and Richard Heller size up the scale of his task. And Wisden meets an astonishingly courageous young man: Waleed Khan was shot eight times in a terrorist attack on his school in Peshawar, but has found a renewed zest for life through a deep love of cricket. Everything from the cricket year - from Ben Stokes's trial for affray to the game in Leicestershire that had to be stopped when a parrot landed on a fielder's shoulder and wouldn't budge - is here. @WisdenAlmanack

A great depression, worsening Anglo-Australian relations, the declining British Empire and the challenge from an Australia striving to find a national identity are the context which explain bodyline and its repercussions. Bodyline was a watershed in the history of cricket and politics were publicly seen as part of sport. This book offers a radical reappraisal of bodyline which challenges the official interpretations of the events, and places them in a unique social and political context. .

What makes Virat Kohli the undisputed monarch of the cricket world today is not his iconic status in the sports hierarchy but that the highest praise comes from the opposition camp and past greats. However, his family didn't always have it good. No stranger to loss, Kohli's biggest support both on and off the field - his father, succumbed to a cerebral stroke when he was very young. In a fitting tribute that would've made his old man proud, Kohli returned to continue an innings just a few hours after his father passed away. `He was the one who drove me to practice every day,' the captain of the Indian Test team recalls with characteristic humility and grace. Widely travelled sports journalist Vijay Lokapally goes on to recount happier times on the journey of Virat's rapid rise to international stardom, an account punctuated with little-known stories by his fellow players, coaches and intimates. At 27, he has already been the recipient of countless accolades including the Arjuna Award, the title of BCCI's `international cricketer of the Year' as well as the ICC's `ODI Player of the Year', but for Kohli it's not about the money or the fame, or the roar of the crowds or the flattering attention from women of all ages. Few know of his altruistic nature and his dedication to numerous charities for under-privileged children. What has not escaped the public eye though, is how this wizard of the willow wears his heavy mantle with such insouciant ease.

The life and times of Middlesex and England wicketkeeper-batsman John 'JT' Murray, one of the acknowledged greats of English post-war cricket. Irresistibly cool, glamorous and apparently unapproachable, Murray was Christopher Sandford's consuming hero at the time the author was confined in an English seaside boarding school in the 60s. Twenty or more years later, the two became friends. In 2017 Murray eventually succumbed to a decade-long campaign and agreed to share in full his lifetime's reminiscences, recounting his experiences of a quarter of a century as a professional English sportsman. Murray proved unfailingly generous and humorous (if by no means uncritical) in his accounts of the great Tests, the tours and the parade of celebrities, sporting and otherwise, he encountered. This treasure trove of stories - described not just in the dry accountancy of scores and averages, but in droll anecdotal detail - lies at the heart of a unique cricket book illustrated by photographs, letters and notes from Murray's own collection.

The former Prime Minister examines the history of one of the great loves of his life.

Throughout John Major s life, one of the constant factors has been his deep love of cricket. In this sumptuously illustrated book he delves deep into the game s history, tracing its development from its rustic beginnings to the international sport we know today. Along the way he examines and at times demolishes many cherished myths. Among the subjects to which he pays particular attention are the changing social role of cricket, developments in the rules, the emergence of the professional player, the game s spread throughout the British Empire and the part it has played in cementing international relations.

John Major s history of cricket reflects not only his lifelong passion for the game, but the depth of his research among a wealth of hitherto neglected but fascinating sources. It is a significant addition to the already rich literature of the greatest game of all."

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Outrageous, audacious, jaw-dropping' SUNDAY TIMES 'An essential read' DAILY MAIL 'Utterly captivating' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Hugely entertaining' GUARDIAN The fascinating life story of professional cricketer Kevin Pietersen, MBE, from his childhood in South Africa to his experiences as one of the leading lights in the world of international cricket. Kevin was dropped from the England squad in February 2014, seemingly calling time on an international career that began nearly ten years earlier. The decision puzzled many observers - although the England team had failed miserably in the Ashes tour of 2013-14, Kevin was the tourists' leading run scorer across the series, and he remains the country's highest run scorer of all time across all formats of the game. Kevin reveals all in his autobiography, telling the stories behind the many other highs and lows of his incredible career. Giving readers the full story of his life, from his childhood in South Africa to his experiences as one of the leading lights in the world of international cricket, KP is an autobiography that entertains and fascinates readers in equal measure.

'Completely brilliant' Ian Hislop It seemed a simple enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of eleven men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe. Except - hold on a minute - that's not a simple idea at all. And when you throw in incompetent airline officials, amorous Argentine Colonels' wives, cunning Bajan drug dealers, gay Australian waiters, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiot Welshmen dressed as Santa Claus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and whole armies of pitch-invading Antarctic penguins, you quickly arrive at a whole lot more than you bargained for. Harry Thompson's hilarious book tells the story of one of those great idiotic enterprises that only an Englishman could have dreamed up, and only a bunch of Englishmen could possibly have wished to carry out.

Five Trophies and a Funeral: The Building and Rebuilding of Durham County Cricket Club is the story of how English cricket's youngest first-class county quickly became the country's top team, before overstretching themselves financially to the brink of extinction. When Durham joined the professional game in 1992 they aspired to be a major on-field force and a home to top international cricket. The high demands put on them as a condition of entry, together with their own lofty ambitions, pushed the club to five major trophies in seven seasons while providing England with top-quality players reared in the North East. But striving for ever more at a time of economic downturn led them to live beyond their means, and they were heavily punished for overspending that the authorities partly encouraged. Now they are looking to restore past glories under the chairmanship of Sir Ian Botham. Part fairy tale, part cautionary story, Five Trophies explains how Durham arrived where they are, and where they aim to go next.

Geoffrey Boycott is undoubtedly one of England's greatest ever batsmen. Playing 108 Test matches between 1964 and 1982, the hugely controversial opener scored a then record 8,114 runs at 47.72 - the highest completed average of any English player since 1970 - against some of the greatest bowlers the world has ever seen. 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. It is illuminating and unsparing, characterised by Boycott's astonishing memory, famous forthrightness and unvarnished, sometimes lacerating, honesty. That 100,000 word document forms the basis for Being Geoffrey Boycott, a device that takes the reader inside Geoffrey's head and back through cricket history, presenting a unique portrait of the internal and external forces that compelled him from a pit village in Yorkshire to the pinnacle of the world game. Now 81 and still one of the most recognisable cricketers England has ever produced, Boycott has teamed up with award-winning author Jon Hotten in this catalogue of his tumultuous time with the national side. Dropped for scoring a slow double hundred, making himself unavailable to play for England for several years, captain for eight seasons of a group of strong, stroppy and extremely talented players at Yorkshire, bringing up his hundredth hundred at Headingley against the Old Enemy, seeing David Gower and Ian Botham emerge as future greats, playing under Mike Brearley in the 1981 Ashes, in this enlightening book Boycott reveals a host of never-before-heard details regarding his peers and his playing days.

Shortlisted for the 2017 Cross Sports Autobiography of the Year 'Full of illuminating anecdotes, piercing insights and unsparing self-analysis from the former England batsman' The Cricketer Jonathan Trott was England's rock during one of the most successful periods in the team's history - he scored a century on debut to clinch the Ashes in 2009, and cemented his position as their pivotal batsman up to and beyond the team's ascendancy to the number 1 ranked test team in 2011. Yet shortly after reaching those heights, he started to crumble, and famously left the 2012-13 Ashes tour of Australia suffering from a stress related illness. His story is the story of Team England - it encompasses the life-cycle of a team that started out united by ambition, went on to achieve some of the greatest days in the team's history but then, bodies and minds broken, fell apart amid acrimony. Having seen all of this from the inside, Jonathan's autobiography takes readers to the heart of the England dressing room, and to the heart of what it is to be a professional sportsman. Not only does it provide a unique perspective on a remarkably successful period in English cricket and its subsequent reversal, it also offers a fascinating insight into the rewards and risks faced as a sportsman carrying the hope and expectation of a team and a nation. And it's a salutary tale of the dangers pressure can bring in any walk of life, and the perils of piling unrealistic expecations on yourself.

The latest release in the Remarkable illustated sports series features Britain's idyllic village cricket grounds. Featuring original photography from all corners of the British Isles. Written by Brian Levison, author of the 8,000-selling Remarkable Cricket Grounds, an Amazon No.1 bestseller.

Who played the best pranks on his fellow team-mates? Which member of the TMS team terrorised his teachers in the annual staff-pupil game? And the truth behind 'the greatest sporting commentary of all time'... Between them, Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell have probably watched more cricket than anyone alive, and they have many stories to tell, both as players and as commentators for Test Match Special. From their days as schoolboy cricketers, learning the ropes, to the shenanigans of the county circuit, and now their careers as commentators, they have seen it all. Joined by colleagues from TMS such as Isa Guha, Ebony Rainford Brent, Alison Mitchell, Carlos Brathwaite and Aatif Nawaz, Aggers and Tuffers share the highlights, mishaps and moments of brilliance and emotion that they have witnessed and experienced on pitches around the world.

Curious about the game of cricket? Start here! Cricket For Dummies, Third Edition will help you understand the basics of cricket, the internationally popular sport that has leagues around the globe. With this guide, you can enjoy watching matches, and even set up a casual game with friends. The book includes clear explanations of the rules, step-by-step guides to strategy and tactics, and info on all the most popular tournaments around the globe. Learn about the cricket greats of today and yesterday, plus get updates on the latest developments, including Major League Cricket and the Cricket World Cup. This new edition of Cricket For Dummies is a fascinating and thorough introduction to the sport, in the classic, easy-to-understand Dummies style. Learn the laws of cricket so you can watch games and follow league play Set up a game of cricket and play with your friends Get the latest updates in the cricket world, including upcoming must-watch tournaments Figure out the strategies and techniques that make cricket so interesting Cricket For Dummies, Third Editionis a valuable resource for new fans who want to understand the game of cricket.

Garry Sobers is a cricketing legend, one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. In this revealing and honest autobiography, Sobers talks about his upbringing and about the tragic accident that inspired him throughout his career. He explains how he helped the West Indies to become the most feared cricketing nation in the world, setting them on a course of success that would run for another 20 years. He also provides authoritative views on the current state of the game and the future of cricket.