Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2014
Ed. Lawrence Booth
John Wisden & Co. [hardback], 2014
PRs 11,330
This, the 151st edition of the cricket bible, is probably the most famous sports book in the world. The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has been published every year since 1864. Wisden 2014 contains coverage of every first-class game in every cricket nation as well as reports and scorecards for all tests and ODIs. Including the eagerly awaited “Notes by the Editor”, the Cricketers of the Year awards, and some of the finest sports writing of the year – such as the brilliant obituaries – together with trenchant opinion, compelling features and comprehensive records, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is something every cricket fan must have.
What people are saying
“Wisden has earned the respect and affection of every serious sports fan... that iconic yellow jacket still marks a fixed point in a disorderly world” (Daily Telegraph).
“Nothing beats the reassuring thud on the doormat in April when Wisden lands, as a harbinger of the season to come and a reminder of seasons gone” (Mike Atherton in The Times).
The Great Tamasha: Cricket, Corruption and the Turbulent Rise of Modern India
James Astill
Bloomsbury [paperback], 2014
PRs 795
Winner of the British Sports Book Awards Cricket Book of the Year 2014
On a Bangalore night in April 2008, cricket and India changed forever. It was the first night of the Indian Premier League – cricket, but not as we knew it. It involved big money, glitz, prancing girls and Bollywood stars. It was not so much sport as tamasha: a great entertainment.
The Great Tamasha examines how a game and a country, both regarded as synonymous with infinite patience, managed to produce such an event. James Astill explains how India’s economic surge and cricketing obsession made it the dominant power in world cricket, off the field if rarely on it. He tells how cricket has become the central focus of the world’s second-biggest nation: the place where power and money and celebrity and corruption all meet, to the rapt attention of a billion eyeballs.
Astill crosses the Subcontinent and, over endless cups of tea, meets the people who make up modern India – from faded princes to back-street bookmakers, slum kids to squillionaires – and sees how cricket shapes their lives and that of their country. Finally, in London he meets Indian cricket’s fallen star, Lalit Modi, whose driving energy helped build this new form of cricket before he was dismissed in disgrace: a story that says much about modern India.
The Great Tamasha is a fascinating examination of the most important development in cricket today. A brilliant evocation of an endlessly beguiling country, it is also essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the workings of modern India.
What people are saying
“Ambitious and excellent… Astill is a lean and elegant writer... He is acute in observing how differently Indian and Pakistan fans relate to their cricketers” (Gideon Haigh in The Cricketer).
From the book
“Right from the start an Indian cricket ground was as much a popular theatre as a sporting venue, with the crowd playing a part in the drama. One or two spectators became stars in their own right. For example, Charlie, a short, fat Parsi clown, whose trademark piercing whistle could be heard all around the ground, and who once scurried between the legs of the enormous Maharaja of Patiala while he was preoccupied watching the play. Happily, the cricket-loving Maharaja saw the funny side, and rewarded Charlie with a gold chain.”
Sourav Ganguly: Cricket, Captaincy and Controversy
Saptarshi Sarkar
Harper Sport [paperback], 2015
PRs 695
Sourav Ganguly is a difficult icon. He is undoubtedly one of India’s most successful captains, one who moulded a new team when India was at its lowest ebb, reeling from the betting scandal. There can be no argument about his cricketing genius, right from the time he scored a test century at Lord’s to the time he led India to the 2003 World Cup final. But the world of cricketing fans is divided into those who adore him fiercely and despise him greatly. He could be arrogant on occasion: Ganguly allegedly refused to carry the drinks as a twelfth man. He constantly challenged authority. Greg Chappell discarded him from the team during his stint as coach. Ganguly cared little for convention: remember the bare-chested celebration at an Indian win?
Yet, in all the years of his roller-coaster ride through Indian cricket, no one questioned the man’s utter devotion to the game or his team. In this account of one of India’s greatest cricketers, shot through with intimate details, Saptarshi Sarkar tackles controversies around the legendary cricketer head on. Racy and gripping, Sourav Ganguly: Cricket, Captaincy and Controversy investigates the big events in “Dada’s” interesting career. It probes the symbiotic relationship between the man and the cricketer. What was Ganguly thinking before a match? Why did he demand that the grass be trimmed just before start of play at the Nagpur pitch? What was the Indian dressing room like? What was that Greg Chappell chapter all about?
An unflinching biography of a man who never shied away from controversies, this is as much a ready reckoner for Ganguly fans as it is an examination of a crucial era in Indian cricket.
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Curtly Ambrose: Time to Talk
Curtly Ambrose with Richard Sydenham
Aurum Press [paperback], 2015
PRs 1,095
Sir Curtly Ambrose is one of the most famous cricket players of all time. He is also notorious for his silence. Now, for the first time, Curtly tells his story.
One of the leading – and most lethal – fast bowlers of all time, Curtly Ambrose played 98 tests and 176 ODIs for the West Indies, and for much of his career topped the ICC player rankings. He was an integral part of the iconic West Indies teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s while also bearing witness to their decline throughout the 1990s and beyond. A formidable sportsman, Curtly has unique insight into the extreme highs and debilitating lows of international cricket.
But during his career Curtly Ambrose was notorious for his silence. He rarely spoke to the media and, if he did, it was usually to rebuff an interview, which earned him the infamous reputation of “Curtly talks to no one!” In this, his autobiography, Curtly tells the story of his life with the West Indies team for the very first time. From his colourful upbringing in Antigua through to the turbulent politics of both nation and dressing room, the book takes you behind the scenes to give a fascinating insight into the career of an iconic sportsman.
With his customary honesty, Curtly discusses his relationship with both the game and his teammates and competitors, and speaks in depth about key moments in his career, including his extraordinary spell against Australia in 1992, taking 7-1. From the culture of West Indian cricket to experiencing post-Apartheid cricket in South Africa, as well as touching on his relationship with cricket mogul and notorious financier Allen Stanford, the book speaks to fans of works such as C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary as well as fans of cricket and sports biography. It also includes forewords from legendary cricket commentators Richie Benaud and Steve Waugh.
From the book
“I was fit enough and good enough to have played on for another eighteen months and maybe even two years, but I wanted to leave at the top of my game rather than have people say I should have retired a year ago. My pride is important to me and I know I left cricket at the right time.”