This fascinating book takes a very different look at Australia's most popular sporting hero, Sir Donald Bradman. Unlike the mostly reverent literature on 'The Don', this 2003 book explains how his iconic status was created and sustained, and what his popularity and heroism say about the meaning of Australian nationhood. Brett Hutchins' unique analysis reveals the mythical character of so many representations of The Don, and connects them to broader social phenomena and the cultural contexts in which they were created. Hutchins considers the many ways in which Bradman has been represented - as a symbol of Australian masculinity, as the quintessential Australian boy from the bush, as the 'battler', and as the hero at a distance from the political. Hutchins is able to show that many of the truisms we take for granted about Bradman and his role in Australian culture are open to challenge.

This fascinating book takes a very different look at Australia's most popular sporting hero, Sir Donald Bradman. Unlike the mostly reverent literature on 'The Don', this 2003 book explains how his iconic status was created and sustained, and what his popularity and heroism say about the meaning of Australian nationhood. Brett Hutchins' unique analysis reveals the mythical character of so many representations of The Don, and connects them to broader social phenomena and the cultural contexts in which they were created. Hutchins considers the many ways in which Bradman has been represented - as a symbol of Australian masculinity, as the quintessential Australian boy from the bush, as the 'battler', and as the hero at a distance from the political. Hutchins is able to show that many of the truisms we take for granted about Bradman and his role in Australian culture are open to challenge.

In May 1977, the cricket world awoke to discover that a thirty-nine-year-old Sydney Businessman called Kerry Packer had signed thirty-five elite international players for his own televised `World Series'. The Cricket War is the definitive account of the split that changed the game on the field and on the screen. In helmets, under lights, with white balls, and in coloured clothes, the outlaw armies of Ian Chappell, Tony Greig and Clive Lloyd fought a daily battle of survival. In boardrooms and courtrooms Packer and cricket's rulers fought a bitter war of nerves. A compelling account of the top-class sporting life, The Cricket War also gives a unique insight into the motives and methods of the man who became Australia's richest, and remained so, until the day he died. It was the end of cricket as we knew it - and the beginning of cricket as we know it. Gideon Haigh has published over thirty books, over twenty of them about cricket. This edition of The Cricket War, Gideon Haigh's first book about cricket originally published in 1993, has been updated with new photographs and a new introduction by the author.

There have been innumerable biographies of cricketers. Peter Oborne's outstanding biography of Basil D'Oliveira is something else. It brings together sport, politics and race. It is the story of how a black South African defied incredible odds and came to play cricket for England, of how a single man escaped from apartheid and came to fulfil his prodigious sporting potential. It is a story of the conquest of racial prejudice, both in South Africa and in the heart of the English sporting establishment. The story comes to its climax in the so-called D'Oliveira Affair of 1968, when John Vorster, the South African Prime Minister, banned the touring MCC side because of the inclusion of a black man. This episode marked the start of the twenty-year sporting isolation of South Africa that ended only with the collapse of apartheid itself.

Cricket is an Indian game accidentally invented by the English, it has famously been said. Today, the Indian cricket team is a powerful national symbol, a unifying force in a country riven by conflicts. But India was represented by a cricket team long before it became an independent nation. Drawing on an unparalleled range of original archival sources, Cricket Country is the story of the first All India cricket tour of Great Britain and Ireland. It is also the extraordinary tale of how the idea of India took shape on the cricket field in the high noon of empire. Conceived by an unlikely coalition of colonial and local elites, it took twelve years and three failed attempts before an Indian cricket team made its debut on the playing fields of imperial Britain. This historic tour, which took place against the backdrop of revolutionary politics in the Edwardian era, featured an improbable cast of characters. The teams young captain was the newly enthroned ruler of a powerful Sikh state. The other cricketers were chosen on the basis of their religious identity. Remarkably, for the day, two of the players were Dalits. Over the course of the blazing Coronation summer of 1911, these Indians participated in a collective enterprise that epitomizes the way in which sport and above all cricket helped fashion the imagined communities of both empire and nation.

**Voted Wisden Cricket Monthly's best cricket book ever in 2019** WINNER, BEST CRICKET BOOK, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010 _________________ Golden Boy is a blistering expose of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes. _________________ Kim Hughes was one of the most majestic and daring batsmen to play for Australia in the last 40 years. Golden curled and boyishly handsome, his rise and fall as captain and player is unparalleled in cricketing history. He played several innings that count as all-time classics, but it's his tearful resignation from the captaincy that is remembered. Insecure but arrogant, abrasive but charming; in Hughes' character were the seeds of his own destruction. Yet was Hughes' fall partly due to those around him, men who are themselves legends in Australia's cricketing history? Lillee, Marsh, the Chappells, all had their agendas, all were unhappy with his selection and performance as captain - evidenced by Dennis Lillee's tendency to aim bouncers relentlessly at Hughes' head during net practice. Hughes' arrival on the Test scene coincided with the most turbulent time Australian cricket has ever seen - first Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, then the rebel tours to South Africa. Both had dramatic effects on Hughes' career. As he traces the high points and the low, Christian Ryan sheds new and fascinating light on the cricket - and the cricketers - of the times.

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.

In March 1977, England cricket captain Tony Greig was arguably the most famous and popular sportsman in the country, and the best all-rounder in world cricket. He had recently led England to a famous series victory in India, her first successful campaign on the subcontinent since the Second World War. Then he had conjured a doughty performance from his travel-weary troops in the dramatic, one-off Centenary Test in Melbourne, narrowly losing by 45 runs. Within weeks, though, his reputation was in tatters. He was branded a traitor and mercenary, stripped of the England captaincy and excluded from the national side. He was also relieved of the Sussex captaincy and banned from first-class cricket for eight weeks. His involvement in the controversial 'Packer Revolution' had caused his fall from grace. Soon afterwards, he left England for good for a commentary career in Australia. At 6ft 7in, Greig was a giant of the game both figuratively and literally. His life story is every bit as fascinating as the controversy that engulfed him.

Combining reportage, anecdote, biography, history, and personal recollection, "A Last English Summer" is an honest and passionate reflection on cricket's past, present, and future. In 2009 the county system looked directionless and obsolete; more than ever, the players blessed with central contracts seemed separate from, rather than a part of, the domestic game. The home Ashes series was for the first time only available on cable TV and, of course, the juggernaut of Twenty20 threatened to flatten all but the Test form of the game, suggesting it may soon eclipse even that as well. Duncan Hamilton has preserved this seminal, convulsing season, which in years to come may be seen as a turning point in the history of cricket. In the process he embarks on a journey--often a deeply personal one--through the history and spirit of the game.

This book includes comprehensive coverage of every League in the North West plus Youth and Women's Cricket, Leagues, Clubs, Contacts, Fixtures, New Structures, Previews and Reviews, Facts, Figures and Tables.

Phil Tufnell, cricket legend and national treasure, has populated his very own Cricket Hall of Fame with a deliciously eclectic collection of cricket legends and offbeat characters, with joyful results. From boyhood heroes, to legendary team-mates, to fearsome opponents, to idiosyncratic umpires and broadcasters, Tuffers has gathered together the most enchanting cast of cricketing figures every assembled. And it wouldn't be a Tuffers tome if there weren't a number of captivating appearances from some unexpected quarters, including some genuinely off-the-wall, non-cricketing inductees to keep life interesting in this very personal Hall of Fame. By turns eccentric and warm-hearted, Tuffers' Cricket Hall of Fame is a joy for all cricket fans.

Paul Edwards is a beautiful writer. He can express the moods and emotions of a day as well as anyone. And his love for the game - and those involved in it - pours off every page of this book. But because he has interests far beyond the boundary - in politics and people, in music and history - he is as likely to quote Mott the Hoople as Herman Melville; as likely to cite the repeal of the corn laws as regulations regarding Kolpak registrations. His work is all the richer and more satisfying for it. He knows that not everything that counts can be counted. He knows you can't define love or loyalty or a million things in between. So he tells us how a day's play feels. He tells us about the people and places. He tells us why it matters but knows it doesn't matter too much.

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.

Born in Bolton tells the history of the 38 first-class cricketers, including 12 Test Players, to have been born in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The first was Walter Hardcastle, born in Great Bolton in 1843, while the most recent are Matt Parkinson and Josh Bohannon. In between there are some fascinating stories of the careers enjoyed by so many Boltonians down the years such as R.,G.Barlow, Charlie Hallows, Dick Tyldesley, Roy Tattersall, Jack Bond, Frank Tyson, Mike Watkinson, Karl Brown, Sajid Mahmood, and many others. Why Bolton has produced so many fine cricketers and is such a cricket stronghold is explained by two excellent contributions from local cricket historians David Kaye and Jack Williams. Each book is accompanied by a fold-out map listing over 300 clubs in the Bolton area and the location of over 100 cricket grounds.

No object encapsulates the subtle, mysterious richness of cricket as much as its most famous character, the cricket ball: the swinging, bouncing, spinning heart of the glorious game. Gary Cox tells us the life story of the ball in its many guises: new ball, old ball, live ball, dead ball, no-ball, lost ball, swing ball and dot ball. He untangles the complexities of spin bowling (with a little help from Shane Warne), the tricks and cheats involved in ball tampering (including a look at the 2018 Australian scandal) and explores the multi-coloured future of a rapidly changing game. A kaleidoscopic look at the ball through the lenses of everything from philosophy and science to history, politics and biography and the myriad facts and figures of the vast cricket universe, Cox brings you a brimming biography of this legendary leathern orb and the heroes, fools and villains it has created along the way.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR SPORTS AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR AT THE 2020 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS. BEN STOKES: WINNER OF THE 2019 BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR AWARD 'He is the Special One, and I intend to call him that for the rest of his career' Sir Ian Botham, Daily Telegraph 'There are not enough superlatives to describe Ben Stokes' Nasser Hussain, Daily Mail 'The undisputed hero of English cricket' The Times Early evening on Sunday 14th July 2019. Lord's Cricket Ground in London. Something unprecedented had just happened: England had won the Cricket World Cup for the very first time since the tournament's inception in 1975. At the epicentre of England's historic triumph was Ben Stokes, the talismanic all-rounder with an insatiable appetite for The Big Occasion. He contributed a critical 84 runs off 98 balls when England batted, a seemingly nerveless innings of discipline and maturity. Thrillingly, it was enough to tie the scores at 241 runs each, so the match reverted to a Super Over - just six balls for each side to bat in the ultimate in sporting sudden-death. Stokes and Jos Buttler saw England to 15 runs off their over. When it was finally confirmed that Martin Guptill had been run out off the very last ball of New Zealand's Super Over with the scores level once again, England had astonishingly won on the boundary count-back, and the nation could finally breathe again. Early evening on Sunday 25th August 2019. A sun-drenched Headingley in Leeds. Having been bowled out for just 67 earlier in the Third Test, England were facing the prospect of failing to regain the Ashes. In their second innings England were still 73 runs short of victory with a solitary wicket remaining. Australia were near certainties to retain the Ashes there and then. Cue one of the most amazing innings ever witnessed as Ben Stokes thrashed the Australian bowlers to all corners of the ground, in the process scoring 135 not out, driving England to a barely-believable one-wicket victory, and keeping the series very much alive. The nation took another breath. On Fire is Ben Stokes' brand new book, and in it he tells the story of England's electrifying first ever Cricket World Cup triumph, as well as this summer's momentous Ashes Test series. It is the ultimate insider's account of the most nerve-shredding but riveting three-and-a-half months in English cricket history.

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.