Cricket books for the non-cricketer

Cricket books for the non-cricketer

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Salted_Peanut

Original Poster:

1,674 posts

67 months

Sunday 15th September 2024
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Are there any cricket-related books you’d recommend for a non-cricketer?

I’m not a cricketer, but I'm reading and enjoying Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket's Underworld. What other cricket books would work for a layperson like me?

witteringon

1,818 posts

54 months

Sunday 15th September 2024
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Salted_Peanut said:
Are there any cricket-related books you’d recommend for a non-cricketer?

I’m not a cricketer, but I'm reading and enjoying Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket's Underworld. What other cricket books would work for a layperson like me?
Tales From A Long Room. Peter Tinniswood.

Russ35

2,585 posts

252 months

Friday 20th September 2024
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Penguins Stopped Play - Harry Thompson

11 village cricketers (Captain Scott Invitation XI) decide to play a game of cricket on each of the 7 continents.



lancslad58

1,203 posts

21 months

Friday 20th September 2024
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Fibber in the Heat - Miles Jupp

"Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play. But perhaps deciding to bluff his way into the press corps during England's Test series in India wasn't his best idea."

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fibber-Heat-Miles-Jupp-eb...


Fire in Babylon: How the West Indies Cricket Team Brought a People to its Feet - Simon Lister

'I doubt there will be a better book written about this period in West Indies cricket history.'
Clive Lloyd

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00WDP9EUW/ref...

A Lot of Hard Yakka: Triumph and Torment - A County Cricketer's Life - Simon Hughes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lot-Hard-Yakka-Triumph-Cr...

Slipless In Settle: A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket - Harry Pearson


Winner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the YearWinner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the Year

"Slipless in Settle is a warm, affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which Andrew Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with Asbo-tag-wearing all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas at the tea bar, two types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman is banned for a month for wearing a fireman's helmet when going out to face Joel Garner ."

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slipless-Settle-Around-No...











Edited by lancslad58 on Friday 20th September 03:54

NowWatchThisDrive

944 posts

117 months

Friday 20th September 2024
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Second "Fire in Babylon", also superbly adapted to film. "Beyond a Boundary" is a (perhaps the) classic, and particularly springs to mind as one I've heard non-fans speak highly of. Also "The Art of Captaincy" by Mike Brearley is pretty interesting and insightful in applying lessons from his time as captain to leadership and just generally getting the best out of people in life.

Glad I stumbled across this anyway as that Miles Jupp one had somehow passed me by and I've always enjoyed him on radio so picked it up.

soxboy

6,995 posts

232 months

Saturday 21st September 2024
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Russ35 said:
Penguins Stopped Play - Harry Thompson

11 village cricketers (Captain Scott Invitation XI) decide to play a game of cricket on each of the 7 continents.
Seconded.

I also recommend ‘Fatty Batter’ by Michael Simkins.

‘This hilarious story of one man's lifelong obsession with cricket takes readers from the early awkward days as a fat boy growing up in a Brighton sweet shop to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates still chasing the sweet spot. In this story, cricket offers a shelter from life's irksome realities and a place in which to quietly dream. That place is a peculiarly English arcadia of occasional wondrous beauty, forests of comforting statistics and the endless life-affirming rituals of defeat, humiliation and disappointment—the perfect net practice for life‘


jet_noise

5,867 posts

195 months

Saturday 21st September 2024
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Does Mike Brearley's The Art of Captaincy: What Sport Teaches Us About Leadership work?

ETA: A +1 for Fibber in the Heat.

jimmyjimjim

7,724 posts

251 months

Sunday 29th September 2024
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Bodyline: The Novel, Paul Wheeler.

milesgiles

2,038 posts

42 months

Friday 18th October 2024
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jet_noise said:
Does Mike Brearley's The Art of Captaincy: What Sport Teaches Us About Leadership work?

ETA: A +1 for Fibber in the Heat.
Couldn’t finish it heavy going

jet_noise

5,867 posts

195 months

Saturday 19th October 2024
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milesgiles said:
jet_noise said:
Does Mike Brearley's The Art of Captaincy: What Sport Teaches Us About Leadership work?

ETA: A +1 for Fibber in the Heat.
Couldn’t finish it heavy going
I'll shut up then smile

milesgiles

2,038 posts

42 months

Sunday 20th October 2024
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Russ35 said:
Penguins Stopped Play - Harry Thompson

11 village cricketers (Captain Scott Invitation XI) decide to play a game of cricket on each of the 7 continents.
Sure this is on my shelf. Must read one day.

milesgiles

2,038 posts

42 months

Monday 21st October 2024
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jet_noise said:
I'll shut up then smile
Correction, it was actually “turning over the pebbles”

Extremely heavy going lol

jet_noise

5,867 posts

195 months

Monday 21st October 2024
quotequote all
milesgiles said:
jet_noise said:
I'll shut up then smile
Correction, it was actually “turning over the pebbles”

Extremely heavy going lol
Ah. I haven't read that. If it's in the library I'll have a go.

I suggested t'Art of Captaincy as cricket is the illustrated example Brearley uses for the wider picture. Helps to know some of the England team he captained though.

milesgiles

2,038 posts

42 months

Monday 21st October 2024
quotequote all
jet_noise said:
Ah. I haven't read that. If it's in the library I'll have a go.

I suggested t'Art of Captaincy as cricket is the illustrated example Brearley uses for the wider picture. Helps to know some of the England team he captained though.
Must be an easier read with something relatable as the focus, Cricket