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September 22, 2009
An all-Wodehouse XI
Posted on 09/22/2009 in Books
PG Wodehouse, one of the great comic writers, was also a decent medium-pacer and a lifelong cricket addict. He wrote several cricket-related books and short stories, and named perhaps his most famous character, Jeeves, after a Warwickshire bowler Percy Jeeves. To mark an exhibition on the author, Henry Blofeld picks a team of Wodehouse characters. Head to Patrick Kidd's blog in the Times for details. "We open the batting with Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, a bit of a flasher with the bat, I think. Alongside him, I select Roderick Spode, also known as Lord Sidcup, the only man in the books who never has one single redeeming feature, unless you include making women's underwear. I'm sure these two will run well together, although they are bound to run each other out at some point.
August 10, 2009
Diplomatic love for cricket
Posted on 08/10/2009 in Indian cricket
Can you write a book on India-Pakistan cricket without ever having watched a match in Pakistan? India's Minister of State for External Affairs and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor can, and that too without seeming out of depth, writes Clayton Murzello in the Mid-Day.
Tharoor proudly claimed that he wrote about Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s in the Club Cricketer magazine in England, after Sunil Gavaskar had talked to him about this young gun who could become a great. Tharoor told a few of us how he wrote that Gavaskar had led very poorly during the home series against David Gower's Englishmen in 1984-85.
The editor of the magazine he was writing decided to amplify things after Tharoor filed in his "tough but fair" piece. The next issue rolled out with the headline: "OUT! Is Gavaskar the worst captain India's ever had?" Naturally, it created a sense of apprehension when he came face to face with Gavaskar. After all, he did not write what the headline said. The name of the author just didn't ring a bell, "it sprang", but Tharoor stressed Gavaskar took it sportingly.
December 8, 2008
Haunting season
Posted on 12/08/2008 in Books
Writing a bestseller is a piece of Christmas cake if you are a well-known cricketer and have a good ghost writer. And more the controversies, better the sales. Kersi Meher-Homji provides a blueprint in Mid-Day.
After a tour of bitterness and rancor, the player heavily involved in the hullabaloo hires an experienced ghost writer and instructs him to be as ruthless as possible.
"Find me a good quote which will make the front page of leading dailies in Australia and around the cricketing world," he instructs his ghost.
"But I gave you a nice one for your Diary last year," suggests the ghost. "Do as you are told," the star hits back.
December 3, 2008
Write in the thick of things
Posted on 12/03/2008 in Books
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Trescothick's triumph means similar books would no longer be condemned as second-class books
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Ghostwritten memoirs are the pariahs of sports literature and and are often judged by critics who have to stifle the urge to squeeze the words "pap" or "vapid" into their reviews. Rob Bagchi in his blog on the Guardian website believes Marcus Trescothick's Coming Back to Life winning the William Hill Sports Book of the Year is a triumph for the particular genre.
There have been so many produced with the titles 'My Autobiography' or 'My Story' over the past 10 years that I have started to suspect that it's gone beyond a claim for definitiveness and has become the crudest Amazon search engine optimisation strategy. Pretty soon all autobiographies will just be called 'The Book'.
November 5, 2008
McMillan's autobiography well worth a read
Posted on 11/05/2008 in Books
Paul Holden reviews Craig McMillan's autobiography, Out of the Park, in his blog, Sideline Slogger, and credits him for a comprehensive and straightforward take on the various subjects raised in the book.
There are fascinating chapters on the formation of the NZ Cricket Players’ Association, the bomb in Karachi, his move to the non-establishment Indian Cricket League and the 2004 tour of England (the “nightmare on the road” - who knew!). He also offers some intriguing insights into the player contract process, and its weighting in favour of Test players. With the rise of Twenty20, and the increased lip service paid to the five-day game, one wonders how much longer this can continue to be the case.
October 1, 2008
Shane Warne's century
Posted on 10/01/2008 in Books
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Warne:"There is no doubt in my mind that Kevin Pietersen can become the best batsman in the world"
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Shane Warne includes Graeme Smith at number 44 in a list of his top hundred cricketers. Aside from his immense talent as a batsman, Warne believes Smith, as captain, is “on the verge of something special” as he heads a formidable South African outfit; a team that can potentially challenge Australia. Warne also feels Kevin Pietersen (no.33 in his list) has the all the makings of becoming the best batsman in the world. Read Warne’s Top 100 List in the Times.
At Test level, I reckon Smith could now be on the verge of something pretty special. South Africa have the makings of a side that can challenge Australia. I am still not convinced by their spin options, but in the seam department Dale Steyn has had a lot of success over the past 12 months, and Morne Morkel is genuinely brisk and is going to be a handful in Australia.
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There is no doubt in my mind that Kevin Pietersen can become the best batsman in the world. There will be no doubt in his mind, either. He's not far away now! He has bags of confidence, and, let's be honest, he has a lot to be confident about. Not many batsmen can average almost 50 in Test cricket but still look as though they are capable of better.
September 6, 2008
A joyless tale
Posted on 09/06/2008 in Books
Marcus Trescothick's ghosted autobiography, Coming Back to Me, belongs to an increasingly popular genre, one that admits to the notion that cricket and the cricketers themselves are not inherently interesting enough to sell, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.
To invest the pages with more bite and, no doubt, more marketability, the player admits to some previously unrevealed trauma, or, in Trescothick's case, a trauma that had been only half-revealed ... Other than moments of dark humour, such as when Peter Gregory, the England team doctor, tried his hand, unsuccessfully, at acupuncture, and when Trescothick was taken in by a fraudster of a hypnotist, this is a joyless book. There is little of the thrill of playing sport at the highest level, none of the humour, nor the fascinating details or character sketches of dressing-room figures that make a sporting life worthwhile.
In its Ashes Heroes countdown, the Times lists Craig McDermott as No. 45.
Meanwhile, the Independent's Brian Viner attends a black-tie dinner at Lord's Taverners to celebrate cricket's 10 surviving centurions – the men who made at least 100 first-class hundreds.
Geoffrey Boycott had other tactics for staying in all day. The scorer of 151 first-class hundreds recalled the advice of his Uncle Algy, that "when two people get involved in a run-out, one of t'buggers is going to be unhappy. Make sure it isn't you." Amid much knowing laughter, he added: "I followed that advice all my life until I met that bastard Amiss." I don't know how Dennis Amiss, another of the centurions, reacted to being called a bastard. And I couldn't quite see whether the mother and grandmother of a young lad at the table next to mine winced at such salty Boycottian language.
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