While reading Bob Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket Drew Forrest of the South African Mail & Guardian wonders how many of the 642 pages did Woolmer in fact contribute and to what extent is this really his account of the "art and science" of cricket.

The reader's unease is heightened by the repeated references to him in the third person and the fact that some of the anecdotes -- notably one by Moffet about Pakistani players pumping themselves up before play -- did not come from his pen. This is not hair-splitting. There is a legitimate suspicion that Woolmer essentially wrote a rather narrowly focused coaching manual and that, in a move to cash in on public rubbernecking in the wake of his sensational death, other people worked it up into a general-interest cricket book.

However Forrest goes on to say the book gives a scientific understanding of why and when the bowled cricket ball curves in the air.

It was intriguing to discover, for example, that the human eye cannot track bowling of higher than 130km/h and that batsmen facing pace move their eyes off the ball to where they expect it to land on the wicket. This, the book points out, effectively debunks the hoariest of coaching maxims: "Watch the ball right on to the bat."

September 16, 2008

Woolmer's book essentially a cricketing guide

Posted on 09/16/2008 in Cricket books

Former South Africa and Pakistan coach, late Bob Woolmer’s soon-to-be-released book Art and Science of Cricket, lives up to its name as it primarily serves as a “cricket manual for coaches and serious students of the game”, and does not touch upon controversial issues such as betting and match-fixing that involved members of the South African team while he was their coach. The Times of India’s Santosh Suri reviews Woolmer’s elaborate work.

The book is an out-and-out cricket manual for coaches and serious students of the game. It deals with the techniques of batting, bowling and fielding. It also has sub-sections on personalities like Don Bradman, Shane Warne and Gary Kirsten, the new India coach. It throws light on issues like ball-tampering, sledging, reverse swing, racial tensions, cricket relations between hostile India and Pakistan; almost every conceivable issue barring the ones in question.

November 7, 2007

Duncan Fletcher vents his frustration

Posted on 11/07/2007 in Cricket books

"Reading Behind the Shades from cover to cover - rather than just the serialised, juicy bits - one cannot help but have sympathy for [Duncan] Fletcher's frustration over his captain's [Andrew Flintoff] show of irresponsibility at a time when the head coach was absorbing all the flak during a difficult time for the England team," writes Sarah Edworthy in the Daily Telegraph.

April 24, 2006

Ashes authors written off for best books award

Posted on 04/24/2006 in Cricket books

Christopher Martin-Jenkins says that none of the books on last year's epic Ashes have made it to the shortlist for the Cricket Society Book of the Year award.

The nearest thing to it being Stephen Fay’s description of Tom Graveney’s year as president of MCC: part biography, part insight into the workings of the world’s wealthiest, and most altruistic cricket club. Also on the list are a vibrant account of India’s momentous tour to Pakistan in 2003-04 by a talented young Indian writer half Fay’s age.

April 12, 2006

The all-new fat Wisden

Posted on 04/12/2006 in Cricket books

Andrew Flintoff is Wisden's Leading Cricketer in the World, with Shane Warne a close second © Wisden

Mike Selvey, in the Guardian looks at this year's Wisden, which commemorates the Ashes summer and names Andrew Flintoff as world cricketer of the year.

The primary role of the almanack has changed from a book of reference, whose records section is out of date the second the manuscript goes to the printers, to one in which the quality of its articles is paramount. If not triumphalist, then this year's almanack is unashamedly celebratory.

Chrstopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times writes that "year by year, by imperceptible degrees, Wisden becomes a little more a book to read, a little less an almanack to consult. Under the present enlightened editorial command, Wisden has achieved an astute mix of outstanding writing, a remarkable fact while reliably recording the main events in all strands of the game."

"As an aide memoire, with reference and legacy rolled into one, Wisden, now in its 143rd edition, brings last season's memories deliciously to the fore," writes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

For the full story on what's in this year's Almanack click here.

April 8, 2006

Wisden's famous five

Posted on 04/08/2006 in Cricket books

Ahead of Wednesday's launch of the 143rd Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, its Editor, Matthew Engel, provides another sneak-preview of the decisions behind choosing the five Cricketers of the Year in today's Times.

FOUR days from now the 2006 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack will be published, the 143rd. It will report, as it has not done since edition No 125, how England won the Ashes. And it will announce, as it has done every peacetime year since No 26 (1889), the names of the Cricketers of the Year.

“The Five” constitutes one of the best loved and most durable traditions in cricket. I think this is partly because the 537 men (it was not always five a year) chosen over the past 117 years are not necessarily the best cricketers. Successive editors have cut themselves enough slack to pick players who just happen to appeal to them. It has always been accepted that there is room for whimsy, idiosyncrasy or downright eccentricity. Cricket followers like that.

Indeed, all will be revealed here at Cricinfo in just a few days' time...

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