The Cricket Writing Thread

[t_94]

There's plenty about how shit the ch 9 commentary is on this forum, but how about cricket writing? Cricket is a sport that lends itself better than most to the written word and amongst the Johnno, Clarkey and Punter tour diaries there's plenty of quality to chose from.

Gideon Haigh is clearly the best. I like his 'cricket worldview' that reigns over a lot of his columns and he has written many superb books. I'm quite eager to get my hands on a copy of his most recent offering about Victor Trumper.

Of the former players I enjoy Atherton and Aakash Chopra the most. From an on field stand point Chopra's articles offer great insight.

My favourite cricket writer though is Jarrod Kimber. To me a lot of his pieces play out like he's watching a movie and I know he's mentioned previously his interest in film. This piece on Bryce Mcgain probably my favourite piece of cricket writing: http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/600880.html ; it completely changed my perception on the player and has become something I always seem to re read in moments of personal failure in life.

Favourite cricket book - In the Firing line by Ed Cowan. Cowan lays it all bare in an up and down account of his 2010/11 season playing for Tasmania. Reading it I was struck by the number of relatable moments (albeit on a far less impressive scale). The conclusion is satisfying too.

Anyway, have at it. Have a favourite piece you'd like to share? A new interesting article? Or just feel like bemoaning the influx of ghost written autobiographies? Post in this thread.

 

[Gough]

Some of my favourites.
On Top Downunder, Ray Robinson, and Gideon Haigh.
Sir Donald Bradman, Irving Rosenwater.
A Lot Of Hard Yakka, Simon Hughes.
Golden Boy, Christian Porter.
Beyond a Boundary, C.L.R. James.
The Art of Captaincy, J. M. Brearley.
Batting from Memory, Jack Fingleton.

 

[PhatBoy]

Peter Roebuck was probably my favorite.

Does Warwick Todd count?

Journalistically I loved Tony Cozier and I have a biased leaning towards Fazeer Mohamed as a Windies fan. I think the fact that both spent so long writing about a team going shit house made their writing seem more grounded in reality without the unnecessary hyperbole of other writers.

Haigh is very good, I'm also a bit of a fan of Coverdale - maybe that's The Chase fan coming out in me.

Interesting that Cowan called his book In The Firing Line. David Boon's autobiography - which was possibly written with Haigh from memory - was called the same.

I've got so many cricket books in the shelf that I haven't finished or even started in some cases.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Gideon Haigh is clearly the best. I like his 'cricket worldview' that reigns over a lot of his columns and he has written many superb books. I'm quite eager to get my hands on a copy of his most recent offering about Victor Trumper.

Gideon Haigh's "The Cricket War", was a revelation. A stunningly meaty account of everything involving World Series Cricket, and he's never looked back. Some of his books have been better than others, depending on your interest in the topic I guess.

Another of his books I enjoyed immensely was "The Summer Game" where he looks at Australian cricket from the late 1940s (post-Bradman) to the early 1970s. As he correctly observed, very little had been written about this period and it made for a great read.

Gideon fears for the future of cricket. It's a pity many contemporary "cricket fans" and administrators don't share his concerns.

 

[Vic Johnston]

Cricket through its very origin, its ideals, principles and idiosyncratic nature as seen through the eyes of the objective observer, favourably lends itself to the written word in many orthodox and unorthodox styles and guises!

Coming from a personable, subjective point of view, I write mainly in anecdotal, tongue in cheek, poetic style about my experiences playing and observing the great game, find it here on 'big footy ' @

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/vics-poetry-cont.1153648/

 

[Gough]

Vic, have you seen this year's Footy Almanac yet? You'll love it.

 

[Vic Johnston]

Vic, have you seen this year's Footy Almanac yet? You'll love it.

No Sir, I'll take a look and thanks for the tip !

 

[Blue1980]

I like Greg Baum writing on cricket.

Loved Roebuck though, would always read his articles

 

[PrideOf]

Does Warwick Todd count?

All good names raised so far, but to me Warwick Todd just showed how shit the flood of Australian cricketers' "autobiographies" are. The fact that at some points you can't tell if it's parody or a real book speaks volumes.

 

[Gough]

All good names raised so far, but to me Warwick Todd just showed how shit the flood of Australian cricketers' "autobiographies" are. The fact that at some points you can't tell if it's parody or a real book speaks volumes.

Mayhem by Tim May is a great pisstake, on the Steve Waugh type diaries.

 

[Hellgood]

The best you can find at the moment is on cricinfo with my favourite being the immense (in both length and quality) collection of The Cricket Monthly. Originally I think you had to sign up to access, but they reverted on that pretty quickly because such quality needs to be a showcase to bring people in rather than being hidden away in the hope people will find and pay for it. Can't really go wrong with the majority of their writers - have to say I can't stomach Michael Jeh's righteousness in his articles though.

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/

The Guardian is quite good too. Sadly Mike Selvey is no longer there, but Vic Marks is excellent. Being predominantly English they have a real emphasis on the traditional forms of the game (first class county and tests). Haven't seen Russell Jackson post anything on cricket for a while now, but pretty sure he has been doing the AFL coverage over the course of the year.

As far as Australian newspapers go, it's obviously Haigh at The Australian then daylight. Am under no illusions how nerdy it is but genuinely look forward to opening up the Sport section on a Saturday summer morning to see text rich features from he and Atherton in there to devour over a coffee

Mark Duffield in The West writes a very good feature too, but is spread pretty thin across the relevant sports in WA.

 

[Vic Johnston]

As is the way of modern society, it's at the very highest echelons of the game where the razzmatazz, the buzz and the publicity occurs. Here the press are ever omnipresent, scrutinising every move of the top players both on and off field, after all, who's interested in what goes on at grassroots level? No celebrity, sporting superstars here, hence no flashing cameras, autograph seekers or journalists aplenty to be seen!

But I allude its at this very basic level where the real 'superstars' of the game are to be found ?

'Robbie Streat' a senior player at my cricket club, on being told of the sad news that due to a serious knee injury his playing days must end forthwith, bravely chooses not to simply give up and walk away from the game he dearly loves, but rather takes a more pragmatic approach and views his current plight as an opportunity to begin the next phase of his illustrious cricketing career'

Professionalism, loyalty, courage in a man at their resounding best, indeed the plaudits could continue but instead, I wrote a poem in homage....

Ode to Robbie Streat

Robbie Streat could not be beat
a cricketer of substance,
First out to bat, wearing trademark cloth hat
left-handed, in style and stance

And he could bowl with pace and soul
always on the money,
deceptively quick, quite a unique trick
every batsman was his bunny

In he'd bound, right arm over or around
never conceding extras,
and his talent went deep, he could wicket-keep
was there ever one so dextrous?

Alas, he announced one day, “No more play
boys, this time I admit defeat!
Due to a ruptured knee, from now I'll make the tea
the end is nigh for Robbie Streat”

Sadly his teammates sighed, some even cried
on hearing of his plight,
for they knew, Robbie was the glue
that strengthen resolve, when in a fight

But their grief was short, as Robbie did retort
“I'm not one to hide my light under a bushel,
by trade a fitter and no quitter
beyond the boundary, is where I'll flex my voice-muscle

I shall take my rightful seat, alongside a class elite
with Gerald, big Harv and many more,
so uplift your hearts, for when the season starts
together, we'll give ‘em war! “

 

[Cleavy]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket...k=c5b358e27b719dcc43e1b0cfad822519-1482548551

opinion pieces are the worst these days.

 

[Hellgood]

Standard of cricket articles on Fox Sports and news limited sites is downright depressing. It's like a tabloid - even saw a "You WON'T BELIEVE who took Steve Smith's spot in the ICC world XI". Absolute dribble.

 

[Demosthenes]

Kimber is okay but I feel like he's got a lot more melodramatic recently.

Quite like George Dobell and Brydon Coverdale.

 

[Vic Johnston]

TMS on radio 4 longwave is good value, especially when Mr Boycott is summarising!

 

[Gough]

Santa digs me.

 

[t_94]

Fantastic pick up there Gough. I seem to remember you saying you're a collector? How many have you got?

 

[Gough]

Complete 1949 present day with another dozen prior to that. I'm also only missing 1938 for a complete run of ABC cricket books from 1934 to the present day.

 

[t_94]

That's seriously impressive, how long did it take you to assemble those?

Got Mark Nicholas' A Beautiful Game for Christmas - going in with high expectations.

 

[Gough]

I decided about ten years ago to start having a serious shot at collecting cricket books. The market is really soft at the moment, and there's plenty of bargains out there if you're interested, especially on the older stuff.

 

[Hellgood]

That's seriously impressive, how long did it take you to assemble those?

Got Mark Nicholas' A Beautiful Game for Christmas - going in with high expectations.

Enjoyed it. Pretty typical Nicholas - very enthusiastic style but has a hell of a lot of stories (with most of them being unknown prior) given his experience in the game.

 

[Cursed Cat]

anyone read Mystery Spinner?

 

[corbies]

I didnt know where to put this but I've been reading Chris Rogers book and I really liked these couple of paragraphs:

"You spend so much of your time questioning yourself and competing against others that you need to find a way to use those doubts. To block them out successfully means kidding yourself, and how long can that last? Instead I find it best to know and own those doubts, and use them to sculpt a technique within my own limitations. By thinking my way through it, I've been able to find ways of succeeding where others have not, particularly as an Australian batsman in England. There is, perhaps, something for others to learn from that, in an age where we constantly hear so much batting bravado talk, which can lead either to rapid scoring or rapid collapsing". Page 4

"How I learned to deal with Shaun (Tait) was a good example of the way I looked at technique. It wasnt simply a case of finding your own method and sticking to it through thich and thin - I've never liked hearing a guy who gets out cheaply saying 'I was playing my natural game'. Instead, I would constantly tinker with the way I batted, factoring on opponents, conditions and my own evolving skills. Equally, I looked closely at how the technical and the mental fed into one another: how guys who could play every shot in the book and look beautifully tight in defence were averaging in the mid 30s while my ugly 'cut and paste' method was allied to mental discipline and shot selection" Page 250

Interesting and different thinking from Rogers' that you dont often hear from those with high profiles.

 

[corbies]

One more from Rogers:

"I've seen so many batsman who virtually jab at the ball rather than stroking it, which only served to give the ball momentum. What that tends to mean is that if the ball moved and catches the edge, its going to fly at catchable height, as it did too often during the 2015 Ashes series"

I reckon he has Mitch Marsh in mind when he says that. Seems to describe his technique perfectly.

Screw it, I recommend the whole chapter called "the technique game" from his book for anyone interested in a breakdown of batting technique. I found it fascinating but I'm a bit weird like that.