The Ashes may be the longest and fiercest sporting soap opera the world has known. The anticipation is always intense, expectations are high and, for England fans, disappointment is almost inevitable, as we usually lose. But it's a drug we can never kick. How have we got into this state? Can we ever break free? Marcus Berkmann knows he can't and has stopped even trying. ASHES TO ASHES is the first emotional history of the contest, shamelessly eschewing balance and objectivity to give the punter's view of every series since 1972. This new edition updates the tale to the victorious 2009 series, while remaining brutally realistic about our chances in 2010 and beyond . . .

Welcome to The Periodic Table of Cricket. Here you'll find the essential elements - batsmen and bowlers past and present - that have left a lasting legacy on this great sport. As with chemical elements, these international personalities have been arranged based on their characteristics in and out of play. Instead of metals and non-metals, here we have patient and determined defensive players, from Jack Hobbs to Hanif Mohammad and Alastair Cook transitioning to fast-paced and attacking players including Shane Warne, Fred Trueman and 'white lightning' Allan Donald with a whole host of others in between. See how the best international players stack up against each other in this original guide to cricket.

After the thrashing the Aussies gave the English in the 2013/14 Ashes test match cricket fans have had cause to wonder if the Poms have forgotten all they ever learnt about playing cricket. The answer is in this blank book. The title "What the Poms know about Cricket" is answered inside by the blank pages 100 of them. It's the ideal gift to give all your Pommy friends & when the joke's over it can be used to keep the scores of future test matches.

This title examines the history of cricket throughout the Americas and asks if the sport could have been the national game in America, as 22 states were playing the game in 1859. It also showcases never-before-seen pictures including art works and selected team scores.

Divided Country explains how segregation and apartheid became entrenched in a unique way in cricket in South Africa between 1915 and the 1950s. While the rest of the cricket world increasingly rubbed out old dividing lines, South Africa reinforced them until seven different South Africas existed at the same time in cricket. Each of them claimed the title `South Africa' and `national'. Each ran leagues and provincial competitions and chose national teams. This book continues the task started by Cricket and Conquest (2017), which re-wrote the foundational narratives of cricket in southern Africa between 1795 and 1914. One reviewer noted it was `simply the finest book ever written about sport in South Africa'. Another that it had the effect of `bowling over prevailing histories, de-colonising existing narratives of the game ... *and+ throwing all that came before into a spin' so that `what was will never be the same'. Divided Country similarly attempts to paint an entirely new picture of cricket in South Africa during a crucial and complex period. It completely inverts previous whites-only general histories of cricket, showing that the game has an infinitely richer history than has been recorded to date. Without knowing how apartheid in cricket unfolded one cannot even begin to understand the journey the country has travelled since the 1950s, and how, slowly, painstakingly, the cricket unity we take for granted today was struggled for and constructed. This will be the explosive theme of Volume 3 of this series.

This title examines the history of cricket throughout the Americas and asks if the sport could have been the national game in America, as 22 states were playing the game in 1859. It also showcases never-before-seen pictures including art works and selected team scores.

The Inside Story of The Australian Cricket Team's Tour of India - 2013 Find out what "really" happened on the Tour of India through the wickedly outrageous chronicles of the 17th Man as he picks over the daily entrails of a Tour gone wrong in his parallel cricketing universe. Australian Cricket Tours of India always start with winning expectations that are ever so slowly deflated by stifling days watching dusty pies belted over the boundary ropes and a curry smorgasbord that runs through you like the Ganges. Mental disintegration under pressure is nothing new. Add the spice of HomeWorkGate, persecution of the Mohali 4, debilitating on-field performances and a dash of sledging and you have enough explosive to shake the pillars of Australian cricket. NOW WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOCK MACNEISH What Readers Say "Funny, considered, intelligent humour which struck a chord for me as a cricket fan" "Warwick Todd with bite "