** Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award ** Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play. But perhaps deciding to bluff his way into the press corps during England's Test series in India wasn't his best idea. By claiming to be the cricket correspondent for BBC Scotland and getting a job with the (Welsh) Western Mail, Miles lands the press pass that will surely be the ticket to his dreams. Soon, he finds himself in cricket heaven - drinking with David Gower and Beefy, sharing bar room banter with Nasser Hussain and swapping diarrhoea stories with the Test Match Special team. But struggling in the heat under the burden of his own fibs, reality soon catches up with Miles as he bumbles from one disaster to the next. A joyous, charming, yet cautionary tale, Fibber in the Heat is for anyone who's ever dreamt about doing nothing but watching cricket all day long.

'Crazy' Chris Lewis played in 32 Test Matches and 53 One-Day Internationals for England. At one point he was regarded as one of the best all-round cricketers the country has ever produced. However, feeling at odds with the middle-class nature of the sport, he regularly courted controversy off the field. The tabloids happily lapped up Lewis' transgressions, such as missing a Test with sunstroke, arriving late to a match due to oversleeping, as well as naming England players involved in a match-fixing scandal, something which led to his early retirement at the age of just 30. From there he became a loner, before he was arrested in 2008 for importing cocaine from the Caribbean and sentenced to 13 years in prison. In Crazy, Lewis recounts his remarkable, redemptive story, firstly as a child arriving in England from Guyana with his parents, through to his burgeoning cricketing career, international recognition, his arrest and subsequent trial, his time in prison, and how he finally put his life back together.

Of all the books about cricket, Mike Harfield's "Not Dark Yet" brings a rare authenticity to the subject. This is a book by a genuine cricketer and a genuine cricket fan with a talent for capturing the spirit of this special game in his witty prose. David Lloyd, aka Bumble, laughed so much he agreed to write the Foreword. He even showed the book to Christopher Martin-Jenkins who found it 'very entertaining and enjoyable'. Reading the book raises the spirits with its cheerful jollity. The mixture of banter and eclectic cricketing information carries the reader along, making for both easy and captivating reading. Loosely based around Mike Harfield's captaincy of a cricket XI over 30 years, Not Dark Yet is both the humorous story of his team's efforts and his often irreverent take on first-class and international cricket. For 30 years the Mike Harfield XI has withstood atrocious umpiring, dreadful hangovers, bad haircuts and a woeful lack of talent, only to encounter an even greater adversity - middle age. Spiced with humour and plenty of banter about fellow team-mates and international players alike, their captain's tales convey an authentic picture of one team's endeavours, to which cricketers and non cricketers will easily relate.

One of cricket's great characters, Franklyn Stephenson was branded a 'rebel' for touring in apartheid South Africa with a West Indian XI. As a black sportsman, he knew his actions went against the wishes of the authorities and that there would be consequences, yet he overcame the character slurs and subsequent bans from both his beloved Barbados and the West Indian Test selectors. Recognised as the first fast bowler to develop a cunning slower ball, Stephenson became one of the world's top all-rounders. The beaming Barbadian achieved cricketing immortality in 1988 by completing the domestic Double of scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets during an English summer - a feat that is unlikely to be repeated. Read about encounters, on and off the field, with household names such as Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Clive Lloyd and Desmond Haynes - and a lifelong friendship with Sir Garfield Sobers. From a childhood full of dramatic life experiences to the heights of one-day finals at Lord's, here is the story of an amiable cricketing giant.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CRICKET SOCIETY AND MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020 The much-loved former England player, Guardian cricket correspondent and TMS broadcaster tells the story of his life in cricket for the first time. In April 1974 new recruits Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Peter Roebuck and Vic Marks reported for duty at Somerset County Cricket Club. Apart from Richards, 'all of us were eighteen years old, though Botham seemed to have lived a bit longer - or at least more vigorously - than the rest.' In this irresistible memoir of a life lived in cricket, Vic Marks returns to the heady days when Richards and Botham were young men yet to unleash their talents on the world stage while he and Roebuck looked on in awe. After the high-octane dramas of Somerset, playing for England was almost an anti-climax for Marks, who became an unlikely all-rounder in the mercurial side of the 1980s. Moving from the dressing room to the press box, with trenchant observations about the modern game along the way, Original Spin is a charmingly wry, shrewdly observed account of a golden age in cricket.

Last Wicket Stand is an honest account of one man's search for meaning, purpose and reinvention, both for himself and the sport he loves. At the start of the 2020 season, English county cricket faced radical change. The Hundred was coming, introducing new 'franchises' playing a new format in the hope of attracting much-needed new audiences. Its inception was controversial. Advocates argued only drastic action could halt the decline of cricket in the UK. Opponents feared it would undermine the very fabric of the much-loved county game. One devoted Essex fan set out to document the last summer before the big change. He toured the country in 2019 chronicling this often-ignored sport, from the gentle lullaby of the County Championship to the bawdy singalong of T20 Finals Day. Richard Clarke was in his 50th year, at a personal crossroads and fearing his best days may be long gone. Change vs tradition, growth vs security, money vs meaning - these perennial struggles lie at the heart of this absorbing and revealing journey of redemption.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CRICKET SOCIETY AND MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2023. "Fascinating" The Observer "Illuminating" The Times "Crickonomics is packed with sufficient statistical analysis to have the most ardent cricket geek purring with pleasure" Mail on Sunday "An insightful, Hawk-Eye-like analysis of the numbers behind cricket" Financial Times An engaging tour of the modern game from an award-winning journalist and the economist who co-authored the bestselling Soccernomics. Why does England rely on private schools for their batters - but not their bowlers? How did demographics shape India's rise? Why have women often been the game's great innovators? Why does South Africa struggle to produce Black Test batters? And how does the weather impact who wins? Crickonomics explores all of this and much more - including how Jayasuriya and Gilchrist transformed Test batting but T20 didn't; English cricket's great missed opportunity to have a league structure like football; why batters are paid more than bowlers; how Afghanistan is transforming German cricket; what the rest of the world can learn from New Zealand and even the Barmy Army's importance to Test cricket. This incisive book will entertain and surprise all cricket lovers. It might even change how you watch the game.

Jim Pleass is the last surviving member of Glamorgan's County Championship winning team of 1948, the first time the Welsh team won the highest honour in county cricket. The Cardiff-born multi-talented sportsman, who was also an exceptional footballer and offered trial games for Cardiff City as a schoolboy, built a reputation as a solid and reliable team player at a time when Glamorgan was establishing itself on the first class cricket scene after the Second World War. In stark contrast to contemporary sport which is too often dominated by money and celebrity, Jim was a hard-working professional sportsman typical of his era, who simply enjoyed the camaraderie and of the game he loved. Yet the man who was born in Cardiff in 1923 achieved something that only a handful of the five hundred or so people who have proudly worn the daffodil-sweater since the Club's formation in 1888, can claim to have also matched, winning some sixty summers after the Club's creation their first-ever County Championship title. Jim was a very lucky man, as the book explains his narrow escape from certain death when he stormed the Normandy beaches on D day in 1944. If it wasn't for the over-exuberance of a driver on another landing craft, Jim would never have graced the cricket field wearing the daffodil of Glamorgan County Cricket Club.

'I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar.' -Shane Warne This is cricket icon, Sachin Tendulkar's life story in his own words - his journey from a small boy with dreams to becoming a cricket god. His amazing story has now been turned into a major film, A Billion Dreams, in which he stars. The greatest run-scorer in the history of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 after an astonishing 24 years at the top. The most celebrated Indian cricketer of all time, he received the Bharat Ratna Award - India's highest civilian honour - on the day of his retirement. Now Sachin Tendulkar tells his own remarkable story - from his first Test cap at the age of 16 to his 100th international century and the emotional final farewell that brought his country to a standstill. When a boisterous Mumbai youngster's excess energies were channelled into cricket, the result was record-breaking schoolboy batting exploits that launched the career of a cricketing phenomenon. Before long Sachin Tendulkar was the cornerstone of India's batting line-up, his every move watched by a cricket-mad nation's devoted followers. Never has a cricketer been burdened with so many expectations; never has a cricketer performed at such a high level for so long and with such style - scoring more runs and making more centuries than any other player, in both Tests and one-day games. And perhaps only one cricketer could have brought together a shocked nation by defiantly scoring a Test century shortly after terrorist attacks rocked Mumbai. His many achievements with India include winning the World Cup and topping the world Test rankings. Yet he has also known his fair share of frustration and failure - from injuries and early World Cup exits to stinging criticism from the press, especially during his unhappy tenure as captain. Despite his celebrity status, Sachin Tendulkar has always remained a very private man, devoted to his family and his country. Now, for the first time, he provides a fascinating insight into his personal life and gives a frank and revealing account of a sporting life like no other.

With the striking success of Shane Warne and Abdul Qadir in modern Test cricket, wrist-spin bowling is definitely back in fashion. In this fully illustrated and readable book, Peter Philpott shows players and coaches at all levels how to acquire the skills of this highly dexterous style of bowling. Areas include: the basic techniques covered step by step; solving bowling problems; how to bat against wrist-spin; mental and physical preparation for matches and the tactics to use. There is a Foreword by Keith Andrew

As a widely respected cricket historian, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, and also a writer with a great sense of fun, Henry Blofeld is the ideal man to select the great characters of cricket who have livened up the sport. We learn of the exploits of the legendary Ian Botham, a man who made up his own rules and has been at the centre of controversy on countless occasions; Garry Sobers, an immensely popular all-round great; and Dennis Lillee, the temperamental fast bowler who once held up a game with a tantrum when ordered to change his aluminium bat. Henry Blofeld regales us with marvellous - sometimes mischievous - stories to add to the "Boy's Own" nature of the book, and highlights those players who would make cricket lovers cancel their appointments to see them, even on a cold April day.

As Roger Morgan-Grenville prepares for a new season with the White Hunter Cricket Club, he is starting to feel his age, so he embarks on a secret plan of coaching, yoga and psychology to improve his game. Will he emerge as a sporting demigod, or will his teammates even notice the difference. This is the humorous and heartwarming story of that cricket season, as the White Hunters go from disaster to triumph. It is a tale of competitiveness, suspense, excellence, hospitality and incompetence, such as the missing fielder found asleep in the woods and the two opening bowlers whose MG Roadster breaks down on the way to the game. From the Castle Ground at Arundel to a field next to a nudist camp in France, players such as the Tree Hugger, the Gun Runner, and their wicket-keeper, the Human Sieve, share the dream that this might be their day. Above all, it is the uplifting story of friendship among a team of not-very-good players who find enough moments of near brilliance to remind them why they turn up for more, game after game, season after season.

From Mumbai and Lahore to the Highveld of the Transvaal and in his native Wales, Alan Wilkins is internationally known and admired as an accomplished sports broadcaster. Growing up as a talented young cricketer in 1970s Cardiff, Alan dreamt of a life in sport and yearned to travel the world but, as he reveals in Easier Said Than Done, he could never have imagined he would realise his dream via a microphone and television camera rather than with a bat and a ball. With great humility and humour, Alan Wilkins tells the fascinating story of how he swapped the life of a sports teacher for a career as a professional cricketer with Glamorgan and Gloucestershire - taking over 370 wickets and playing in the 1977 Gillette Cup final - and how it was brought to a devastating end in 1983 by a debilitating shoulder injury. Determined that his Life in Sport would not end after his enforced retirement from cricket, Alan vividly describes how, with determination and enthusiasm, he embarked on a new and successful career in sports broadcasting which has seen him commentate on many of the world's greatest sporting occasions - from Wimbledon to The Masters and from the Rugby World Cup to the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League - and how he has forged lifelong friendships with many legends of the sporting world. Millions of sports fans know Alan Wilkins the broadcaster but now, with Easier Said Than Done, they can get to know the man behind the microphone, and the absorbing story of his Life in Sport.

THE HILARIOUS NEW BOOK FROM ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED NATIONAL TREASURES! This is not a book of life lessons. But Freddie Flintoff has had a moment to reflect and he's noticed that throughout his four decades, although there's been little method in the madness, there has been the occasional common thread. The Book of Fred is filled with anecdotes, observations and the odd opinion all told with Fred's trademark humour and no-nonsense style. Fred's approach to life draws on the sublime (his series winning performance in the 2005 Ashes) and the ridiculous (singing Elvis Presley's 'Suspicious Minds' in front of a live audience), from highs (making the transition to top TV presenter) to occasional lows (accidentally upsetting the lovely Bruce Forsyth), from the profane (discussing Shane Warne's barnet with Hollywood royalty) to the profound (why 'having a go' leads to self-respect). Throughout, Fred shares his code for success, happiness and a life fully lived - and gives his readers a laugh, some joy, and (the occasional) pause for thought along the way.

Graeme Swann's transformation from international outsider to England's primary match-winner and undisputed best spin bowler in the world has been remarkably rapid. Within two years of his 2008 Test debut, he had become his country's most reliable bowler, made the shortlist for the ICC's cricketer of the year award and claimed an Ashes-sealing wicket. Yet the script took many twists and turns along the way. Drafted into the squad for the full tour of South Africa in 1999-2000. Swann's meteoric received a jolt. While some liked the cut of his jib, others did not and England coach Duncan Fletcher already had a foot in the latter camp when Swann missed the bus for the first of two times on that tour. Suddenly he was judged on temperament and not talent. Although Swann candidly concedes he was nowhere near good enough for the top level at that stage in his career, his jettisoning back to county cricket for the next seven years, following a solitary one-day international, hinted at a career wasted. A clash with then Northamptonshire coach Kepler Wessels triggered his move to Nottinghamshire in 2005. A County Championship winner in his debut season, he was back in the England fold at the end of his third. Forever a flamboyant showman, he made up for lost time with two wickets in his first over against India - his habit of striking in his opening over a spell has become a party piece. You cannot keep the spotlight off him for long. Since moving into the top 10 of the world rankings for bowlers on the back of eight wickets in the Ashes-defining Oval Test of 2009, he has not dropped outside it, and has been widely tipped to be the decisive factor in the defence of the urn in Australia.

Written by Andrew Hignell, the Archivist of Glamorgan County Cricket Club and the leading authority on the history of cricket in Wales, this book recalls these Golden Years in the history of Blaina Cricket Club as well as tracing the fascinating history of cricket in this Monmouthshire valley. Drawing on the memories, photographs and personnel recollections of those directly involved with the Blaina club from the times when coal was king, through the years of the decline in the iron and tinplate industry to the modern years of mine closure and de-industrialisation, Andrew Hignell has not only produced a cricketing history of Blaina, but also a social history of the town. Cricket began in Blaina in the 1850s as the ironmasters used the game to fly the flag for their works as well as trying to harmonise industrial relations and promoting healthy lifestyles. The playing of cricket subsequently developed into a unifying force within the tight-knit valley communities and, as the first team-game to evolve in industrial Wales, it helped to bond and give immense pleasure to the people whose livelihood was dominated by the state of the iron and coal industries. There were good times and bad, yet throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Blaina cricket club remained strong and vibrant. It was a founding member of the South Wales and Monmouthshire League and the club regularly attracted large crowds, sometimes of up to 4,000.

Cricket is a strange game. It is a team sport that is almost entirely dependent on individual performance. Its combination of time, opportunity and the constant threat of disaster can drive its participants to despair. To survive a single delivery propelled at almost 100 miles an hour takes the body and brain to the edges of their capabilities, yet its abiding image is of the gentle village green, and the glorious absurdities of the amateur game. In The Meaning of Cricket, Jon Hotten attempts to understand this fascinating, frustrating and complex sport. Blending legendary players, from Vivian Richards to Mark Ramprakash, Kevin Pietersen to Ricky Ponting, with his own cricketing story, he explores the funny, moving and melancholic impact the game can have on an individual life.

Alastair Cook forced his way into the record books in 2006, becoming one of the few England players to score a hundred on debut. By going on to become the only Englishman to hit seven Test centuries before his twenty-third birthday, Alastair found himself in the company of the greatest players in cricketing history. STARTING OUT is Alastair's personal account of this speedy climb to stardom. Equally gifted at music, he opted for cricket as a schoolboy and the young left-hander broke record after record as he progressed to become the first-choice opener for Essex. Now an integral part of the England team with over forty caps, Alastair is perfectly placed to describe the highs and lows of life within the England cricket camp during one of the most exciting and turbulent periods of their history, both on and off the field. Updated to include the full story of the 2009 Ashes series, STARTING OUT amounts to a fascinating insight into life as one of the rising stars of English cricket.

A Corner of Every Foreign Field is an innovative and thought-provoking take on the history of cricket, looking beyond the scorecards to the pivotal issues of class, politics and imperialism that have shaped the game today. It charts how cricket has vied with football for power, commercial muscle and global reach, growing from a simple boys' game in England to a modern worldwide sport. In exploring cricket's evolution, Tim Brooks calls on the views and anecdotes of greats like W. G. Grace, Don Bradman, Viv Richards and Virat Kohli. Along the way, he peers deep into the game's soul and poses questions on behalf of every cricket fan. Is cricket truly global? Why did the game take root in some countries but not in others? What are the threats and opportunities for the sport? Who are the next cricket superpowers? How do you strike a balance between honouring tradition and reforming to capture the imagination of future generations? Written by an expert in the global development of cricket, the book sets out a unique vision for the future.

Cricket is defined by the characters who have played it, watched it, reported it, ruled upon it, ruined it and rejoiced in it. Humorous and deeply affectionate, Cricketing Lives tells the story of the world's greatest and most incomprehensible game through those who have shaped it, from the rustic contests of eighteenth-century England to the spectacle of the Indian Premier League. It's about W. G. Grace and his eye to his wallet; the invincible Viv Richards; and Sarah Taylor, 'the best wicketkeeper in the world . . . male or female'. Paying homage, too, to the game's great writers, Richard H. Thomas steers a course through the despair of war, tactical controversies and internecine politics, to reveal how cricket has always stormed back to warm our hearts as nothing else can.

ENGLAND WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. Loosely based on the sad tale of the cricketers of Clifton College, whose cricket first eleven all volunteered for active service at the commencement of the First World War, suffering the inevitable consequences. The story follows the early adventures of the cricket-mad public schoolboys of Wickham Dale, where sexual scandals are simmering beneath the surface. The boys smutty, knockabout, knob-orientated humour is a spoof of the 'Boy's Own' derring-do adventures in early C20 junior fiction, as is the underlying morality of the time, cricket etiquette and outdated values that perished on the bloody fields of Flanders and France. Underpinning the story is the relationship between shy, introverted would-be poet Jack Bigglesworth and his childhood playmate, the liberated, free-spirited, audacious and impetuous Kitty Ketteridge. Their subsequent fate, anguish and disillusionment of the survivors is recounted in awful detail, as is the deserved fate of the school miscreants.