"Sachin Sachin" will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing' -Sachin Tendulkar in his farewell speech. Sachin Tendulkar's retirement from the sport in November 2013 was among the most-watched cricket events of the year, one that tugged at the heartstrings of Indians and cricket lovers worldwide. Shortly after Tendulkar walked off the field for the last time, the Government of India bestowed upon him the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour. Sachin Tendulkar: The Man Cricket Loved Back is an ESPNcricinfo anthology of fine writing on India's greatest cricketer. This collection brings together affectionate and perceptive appreciations from both teammates and rivals who saw Tendulkar up close. It also features several interviews conducted with Sachin over the years, as well as superb pictures of him on and off the field, making for a comprehensive portrait of both the cricketer and the man.

In 1960, against most predictions, the England cricket team won their first ever series in the West Indies. Even against a home side boasting Hall and Watson, Worrell, Sobers and Ramadhin, the visitors - fuelled by the bowling of Trueman and Statham and a batting order including Dexter, Barrington and Subba Row - emerged triumphant over five tests.

Alan Ross describes the action in graphic detail, including some violent scenes at Port-of-Spain. And as always he paints vivid pictures in words of all that he saw outside of the cricket grounds, from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Nelson's dockyard in Antigua, and the carnival in Trinidad.

'Alan Ross has established himself as one of the most graceful and cultured of cricket writers.' "Times"

When Andrew Strauss's team seized the world title in the summer of 2011 they finally recovered what had been lost at the Adelaide Oval in 1959. This tale of England's preceding triumph and loss is recounted through the memoirs of many of the star players when England had last been top of the world. Bent Arms and Dodgy Wickets tells the story of English cricket's slow recovery from the Second World War, of its brief time of triumph and of its undignified fall from grace - a tale of fluctuating fortunes reflected upon by great names including Hutton, Compton and Trueman, Lindwall and Miller, McGlew and Weekes. The title refers to the sporting controversies of the time - suspect bowling actions and poor pitches - as Britain declined as an imperial power, and English cricket was hampered by class snobbery, anachronistic fixations and an uncompetitive domestic game.

On 16 March 2012, at Mirpur in Dhaka, after opening the innings for India, Sachin nudged the ball to behind square leg in the forty-fourth over to cross the final barrier: a hundred centuries in international cricket. In this account of the master batsman's incredible journey, sportswriter V. Krishnaswamy takes us through every hundred, every peak scaled on Sachin's way to the top. With an introduction by former India captain Rahul Dravid and a foreword by Sachin's first and most famous coach Ramakant Achrekar, this is a book for every cricket and Sachin fan.

This book provides the first comprehensive and complete history of Western Province cricket and the Cape Cobras in the 121 years from 1890 to 2011. It goes beyond any similar sports history in South Africa to date, to reveal the rich history of cricket in a region with the longest tradition of playing in the country and the continent. Based on decades of painstaking research, it overturns old, exclusive 'official' accounts of the past and introduces us to a wealth of new material about players, clubs and matches that were previously 'off field'. With its 20 000 cricketers, part-owned Cape Cobras franchise and the famous 123-year-old Sahara Park Newlands Stadium, the Western Province Cricket Association has inherited the oldest tradition of cricket in South Africa.

Lost Histories of Indian Cricket studies the personalities and controversies that have shaped Indian cricket over the years and brings to life the intensity surrounding India's national game.
It may be true that that cricket today arouses more passions in India than in any other cricket playing country in the world. Yet, when it comes to writing on the history of the game, Indians have been reticent and much of the past has been obscured and lost. Majumdar here recovers this history and restores it to its rightful place in India's rich sporting heritage.

The period from 1993 has been one of the most successful in the history of Glamorgan CCC, with both league and cup victories. This is the story of this wonderful period, told in the players' own words, and supported by superb photographs by Huw John. It will appeal to all Glamorgan CCC supporters.

This work offers an intriguing and important analysis of the role played by three prestigious grammar schools - Combermere School, Harrison College and the Loge School- in establishing the cricket cult in Barbados and ultimately throughout the Caribbean. It goes far towards explaining why Barbadians have traditionally played such excellent cricket. This book is the first to make such extensive use of Barbadian school magazines as primary sources for the study of social history. The author stresses the statistical first class records of about 200 alumni of the three schools and in so doing furnishes sport sociologists with a considerable new body of empirical data for future use. Although it focuses on a Barbadian situation, the book should interest cricket enthusiasts everywhere with its many photographs and its lucid and candid treatment of some of the most important personalities in regional and world cricket, a few of whom are still actively involved in the sport today.

In this strikingly original work, cultural critic Jonathan Dollimore once again demonstrates his remarkable ability to take on the complex and reveal its relevance with eloquence and grace.
Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture is a rich testament to our eternal preoccupation with the tangled web of death and desire.
An immensely important book, this is a challenge to the way we understand desire, sexuality, and the very notion of identity.

They are the masters of deception, the jokers in the pack; illusionists conjuring wickets out of thin air with nothing more than an ambled approach and a wonky grip. Not for them the brutish physicality of the pace bowler nor the reactive slogging of the batsman. Theirs is a more cerebral art. They stand alone in a team sport. They are Twirlymen. Having himself failed through a combination of injury and indolence to become a leg-spinner of renown, Amol Rajan pays homage to that most eccentric of all sporting heroes - the spin bowler. On a journey through cricket history Rajan introduces us to the greatest purveyors of that craft, from W. G. Grace to Graeme Swann via Clarrie Grimmet's flipper, Muttiah Muralitharan's helicopter wrist, Shane Warne's ball-of-the-century and all the rest.

As a toddler, Geoff plays a straight bat with a frying pan, knocking his brother unconscious. They both survive and go on to share an obsession with cricket. From playing as kids in oversized pads, they become recreational cricketers and devotees of England and Notts. Cricket, My Brother and Me is rich in humorous anecdotes and personal memories of 50 eventful years playing and watching cricket. Accounts of early life as cricketers see the brothers trying to emulate their heroes and failing miserably, finally settling for the role of spectator. Memories include the torture and the glory of watching the Ashes, touring abroad and the more sedate joys of county cricket. The book describes the brothers' fraught first encounter with the Barmy Army and later touring as part of the world's greatest supporters' club. Ardent fans will enjoy the serious reflections on cricket and politics and thoughts on the future of the sport. This is a 'must read' for cricket lovers and for those intrigued as to why cricket can inflame such passion.

Since Victorian times, the MCC had embraced the amateur ideal that cricket was more than a game. It was the very essence of camaraderie and good sportsmanship. Yet for all their evangelising, the game's privileged elite were part of a British establishment which revelled in its national prestige and imperial hegemony. And winning at cricket was essential to maintaining that stature. Ambassadors of Goodwill assesses the MCC's attempt to marry these conflicting objectives and foster goodwill within the Empire via long, formal overseas tours. After the war, the amateur ideal suffered when Len Hutton was appointed England's first professional captain. His uncompromising leadership brought success on the field but discord off it. Managers were installed to restore diplomatic harmony but, with the growing upheavals of the late 60s, cricket became increasingly associated with nationality, race and professional cynicism. Ray Illingworth's controversial win in Australia in 1970/71 clearly signalled the MCC's waning influence.

From Gower to Flintoff, Waugh to Vaughan, Cronje to Pietersen, Paul Nixon has shared a dressing room with some of the most evocative names in international and domestic cricket - and often enraged them on the field of play. The wicketkeeper, known as his sport's most prolific 'sledger', has amassed more than 20 years of stories from his career at the heart of the game and now reveals them in typically outspoken style. From 'Fredalo' to match-fixing, Nixon has experienced some of the most notorious episodes in cricket history, possesses strident opinions on the game and has a track record of success in the English first-class game and the Twenty20 revolution. With an accent on off-the-field anecdotes, Nixon also lays bare the personality that led the Australian legend Steve Waugh to compare him to: 'a mosquito buzzing around in the night, that needs to be swatted but always escapes.'

Colin Cowdrey is remembered for the elegance of his strokeplay; but there was more to this complex man than a classical cover drive. Successes were numerous: 114 Test matches, 22 Test hundreds, 100 first-class centuries, countless famous victories and unforgettable innings. There was controversy and disappointment too, chief among them being repeated snubs for the England captaincy and the D'Oliveira Affair. Cowdrey was involved in three of England's most memorable Tests: Lord's in 1963 against the West Indies, batting at 11 with his arm in plaster, two balls left and all four results possible; Trinidad in 1968 in which England secured a famous victory against the West Indies; and The Oval in 1968 when England gained an improbable final-over win against Australia. In later life, he shone as an administrative leader - as president of Kent and of the MCC, and as chairman of the ICC - and was made a Lord. Sir Garry Sobers spoke for many when he said at his memorial service, "Colin Cowdrey was a great man."

Barbados-born John Holder arrived in England during the 1960s as part of the second wave of West Indian immigrants recruited by London Transport after the war. While working on the Underground he was recommended for a trial at Hampshire. Impressed by his speed and hostility with the ball, they signed him on the spot. For seven years, his career as an opening bowler followed an uneven course, periods of loss of form and confidence punctuated with moments of sheer brilliance, the most noteworthy both coming in his final year at Hampshire in 1972, taking 13-128 in the same match against Gloucestershire and a hat-trick against Kent. A back injury brought his county career to a close. What better way to stay in touch than to become an umpire? A first-class umpire for 27 years, he officiated in 11 Tests and 23 one-day internationals. Former team-mate Andrew Murtagh had unique and unfettered access to his subject. A Test of Character throws an interesting light on the job of an international umpire, with all its pressures, vicissitudes, controversies and prejudices, leavened of course with a fair degree of humour too.

Former county cricketer and one-time England Test batsman Alan Butcher was looking for a new challenge after leaving his job coaching Surrey County Cricket Club. A phone call out of the blue from a Zimbabwean great alerted him to the possibility of coaching the nation's cricket team. His three years in charge presents an insight into the at times schizophrenic nature of cricket in this intriguing country. Starting at the point when Butcher was offered the job, he describes the process of moulding a team out of a dispirited and disillusioned group of players. Part cricket memoir, part travelogue, part ode to Zimbabwe, part lament for a beautiful-but-troubled country, The Good Murungu? is a fascinating insight into Zimbabwean cricket.

This selection of the very best, and most intriguing, writing on cricket, drawn from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day, adopts a fresh approach. It is arranged around the theme of the many things that must happen simply for a day's play to happen - from creating a clearing in a Malaysian jungle to getting to the ground - so includes, alongside writing by players both great and unknown, the perspectives of spectators, umpires, scorers and other unsung heroes of the game. There are contributions from John Arlott, Neville Cardus, C. L. R. James and E. V. Lucas; Marcus Trescothick writes on his introduction to cricket aged three; Angus Fraser on meeting Nelson Mandela; Phil Tufnell on being shanghaied into getting a haircut by Mike Gatting; and Rachael Heyhoe Flint on being the first woman to step onto the Lord's ground as a player. But it is the cricket itself and the outstanding players and their achievements that remain the focus - the greats of the recent and distant past involved in some of their most famous exploits. From 'disgraceful scenes at Lord's', described by Irish writer Robert Lynd, to North America, which W. G. Grace toured in 1872, and from a match played on ice to the tropical islands of Fiji and Samoa, this is a collection that does full justice to the extraordinary breadth, diversity and enduring fascination of the greatest game in the world.

The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, first published in 1979, is well established as an invaluable and unique source of reference essential to any cricket library. This new volume includes full scorecards and match reports from 1877 to 1977. Originally edited by Bill Frindall, this new volume brings collectors' libraries up to date, ensuring they have a complete and accurate record - essential for any truly self-respecting cricket enthusiast.

Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game's one true living legend and his story both on and off the pitch reads like a Boy's Own rollercoaster ride. Born with a natural genius for cricket, Botham began breaking records with bat and ball from a young age and soon became the man English cricket expected most from. After a troubled period as England's captain, Botham rose once again to become a national hero with his display in the Miracle Ashes of 1981. But, with his confrontational nature and wild streak, he began regularly making the wrong kind of headlines. With accusations of drink and drugs, affairs and ball-tampering, he became hounded by the tabloid pack, never sure whether they wanted him to triumph or implode. Now a Knight and just as famous for his tireless charity work, Beefy gives us the definitive story of his never-dull life and times in his own no-nonsense words.

*Large format edition* Wisden 2020 provides unparalleled coverage of an extraordinary year of cricket. The 157th edition of Wisden celebrates the World Cup triumph of England's men on a memorable day at Lord's. The cover captures the moment of victory - and arguably the most important split second in the history of English cricket - as Jos Buttler runs out Martin Guptill from the last ball of the super over to confirm England as champions. Wisden 2020 reports not just on a remarkable World Cup, reliving the climax through the eyes of England's players, but on a topsy-turvy Ashes, the Stokes Headingley miracle and all. Wisden also names its champion all-format county, and remembers Bob Willis, who died in December. Emma John reveals what it's like to be a woman member of MCC, while Colin Shindler looks back 50 years at a summer of demonstrations and barbed wire. @WisdenAlmanack