Beyond a Boundary
Beyond a Boundary

Author: Cyril Lionel Robert James

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780822313830

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James--the "black Plato," (as coined by the London Times)--shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony (by one of the founding fathers of African nationalism), part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, Beyond a Boundary raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics, and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later (Pantheon, 1983), this second American edition brings back into print this prophetic statement on race and sport in society.

The Picador Book of Cricket
The Picador Book of Cricket

Author: Ramachandra Guha

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 1509841407

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A tribute to the finest writers on the game of cricket and an acknowledgement that the great days of cricket literature are behind us. There was a time when major English writers – P. G. Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alec Waugh – took time off to write about cricket, whereas the cricket book market today is dominated by ghosted autobiographies and statistical compendiums. The Picador Book of Cricket celebrates the best writing on the game and includes many pieces that have been out of print, or difficult to get hold of, for years. Including Neville Cardus, C. L. R. James, John Arlott, V. S. Naipaul, and C. B. Fry, this anthology is a must for any cricket follower or anyone interested in sports writing elevated to high art.

Cricket
Cricket

Author: Ian Valentine

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781780972329

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Cricket Yesterday and Today is a unique celebration of cricket, where the days of James Lilywhite, WG Grace and Victor Trumper are shown alongside the era of modern icons Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar. In this unique photographic sports book, cricket is shown in a new light as historic photographs are shown alongside images from today. The first Ashes tour is shown opposite today's squad of superstars, the stiff upright delivery stride of spinner Albert Trott is contrasted to the 'frog in a blender' action of Paul Adams and the classical Wally Hammond cover drive is compared to Tillakaratne Dilshan's Dilscoop. Each pair of photographs is discussed in a lively, intelligent and anecdote-packed style by celebrated cricket writer Ian Valentine.

On Cricket
On Cricket

Author: Mike Brearley

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2018-10-04

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1472129458

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A treasure of recollections and reactions, talking heroes, controversies and big themes' i paper 'Brearley is at his best in these quirky, delightful essays when he is exploring the human qualities of humbler players . . . Brearley's admiration for his friends' decency, craftsmanship and modesty seems to recall a golden age of country cricket' The Times 'Brearley has a knack for paying respect to the past without denigrating the present and for calmly considering the future' Mail on Sunday Mike Brearley was arguably one of England's finest cricket captains; not just for his outstanding record leading his country but also for the way he orchestrated, during the 1981 Ashes series, one of the most extraordinary reversals in sporting history. In this collection of sparkling essays, Brearley reflects on the game he has come to know so well. He ranges from the personal - the influence of his Yorkshire father and the idols of his youth - to controversial aspects of the professional game, including cheating, corruption, and innovation, the latter often being on a borderline between genius and rebellion. Brearley also evaluates his heroes (amongst them Viv Richards, Bishan Bedi and Dennis Lillee), the game changers, the outstanding wicketkeepers, the 'Indian-ness' of four generations of Indian batsmen and the important commentators (including Harold Pinter, John Arlott and Ian Chappell). The Ashes, the most sustained love-hate relationship in the history of sport and key to Brearley's test-playing career, are raked over. Central to the book is an important section on race and cricket, and the legacy of C. L. R. James. Insightful and humorous, On Cricket is an intelligent exposition of the game's idiosyncratic culture and its enduring appeal.

Different Class
Different Class

Author: Duncan Stone

Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

Published: 2022-01-11

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1913462811

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Shortlisted for the Cricket Writers Club 'Book of the Year' 2022 and the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards 'Cricket Book of the Year' 2023 In telling the story of cricket from the bottom up, Different Class demonstrates how the "quintessentially English" game has done more to divide, rather than unite, the English. In 1963, the West Indian Marxist C.L.R. James posed the deceptively benign question: "What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?" A challenge to the public to re-consider cricket and its meaning by placing the game in its true social, political and economic context, James was, all too subtly, attempting to counter the game’s orthodox history that, he argued, had played a key role in the formation of national culture. As a consequence, he failed, and the history of cricket in England has retained the same stresses and lineaments as it did a century ago — until now. In examining recreational rather than professional (first-class) cricket, Different Class does not simply challenge the widely accepted orthodoxy of English cricket, it demonstrates how the values and belief systems at its heart were, under the guise of amateurism, intentionally developed in order to divide the English along class lines at every level of the game. If the creation of opposing class-based cricket cultures in the North and South of England grew out of this process, the institutional structures developed by those in charge of English cricket continue to discriminate. But, as much as the exclusion of Black and South Asian cricketers from the recreational mainstream is the most obvious example, it is social class that remains the greatest barrier to participation in what used to be the national game.

Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket
Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket

Author: Stephen Fay

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-04-19

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1408895390

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 'Beautifully written, meticulously researched and stuffed with rich sporting and social history ... Unputdownable' Mail on Sunday After the Second World War, as the BBC tightened its grip on the national consciousness, two of the most famous English voices were commentators on games of cricket. John Arlott and E.W. ('Jim') Swanton transformed the broadcasting of the nation's summer game into a national institution. Arlott and Swanton typified the contrasting aspects of post-war Britain. Because of their strong personalities and distinctive voices – Swanton's crisp and upper-class, Arlott's with its Hampshire burr – each had a loyal following. As England moved from a class-based to a more egalitarian society, nothing stayed the same – including professional cricket. Wise, lively and filled with rich social and sporting history, Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket shows how, as the game entered a new era, these two very different men battled to save the soul of the game. _______________________ 'Magnificent ... One of the best cricket books I've read in years: it makes long-forgotten matches live and breathe as though they were played yesterday' Daily Mail, Books of the Year 'A triumph ... [Kynaston and Fay] both have inside-outside sensitivities that keep this near-seamless collaboration shrewd, worldly, balanced and fresh' Times Literary Supplement

Arlott
Arlott

Author: David Rayvern Allen

Publisher:

Published: 2013-07-24

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9781781312278

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

John Arlott's rich Hampshire burr was the voice of BBC cricket commentary for many years, from the great Test match radio broadcasts of the fifties to bucolic Sunday League on the television in the seventies. But he was also a distinguished journalist for the Guardian, a Liberal parliamentary candidate, a courageous opponent of apartheid in sport from the earliest opportunity, and a connoisseur - and imbiber - of fine wine without equal. David Rayvem Allen's definitive biography was acclaimed on its first publication and won the Cricket Society's award for Cricket Book of the Year. Now reissued by Aurum in a new paperback edition to tie in with its publication of the author's authorised biography of E.W. Swanton, Arlott evokes both a broadcasting legend and a sensitive, humane man, whose graphic, pensive and wry commentaries came to epitomise the sound of an English summer.