Wisden on the Great War

Wisden on the Great War
Author: Andrew Renshaw
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408832356

A lasting memorial to those from the cricketing world who fought and those who fell.

Cricket in the First World War

Cricket in the First World War
Author: John Broom
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2022-04-21
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1526780143

As Europe descended into war over the summer of 1914, cricket in England continued as it had for the preceding few decades. Counties continued with their championship programme, clubs in the North and Midlands maintained their league and cup rivalries whilst less competitive clubs elsewhere enjoyed friendly matches. However, voices were soon raised in criticism of this ‘business as usual’ approach – most notably that of cricket’s Grand Old Man, W.G. Grace. Names became absent from first-class and club scorecards as players left for military service and by the end of the year it was clear that 1915’s cricket season would be very different. And so it would continue for four summers. Rolls of honour lengthened as did the grim lists of cricket’s dead and maimed. Some club cricket did continue in wartime Britain, often amidst bitter disputes as to its appropriateness. Charity matches were organised to align the game with the national war effort. As the British Empire rallied behind the mother country, so cricket around the world became restricted and players from far and wide joined the sad ranks of sacrifice. Cricket emerged into the post-war world initially unsure of itself but the efforts that had been made to sustain the game’s infrastructure during the conflict ensured that it would experience a second golden age between the wars.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2015

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2015
Author: Lawrence Booth
Publisher: Wisden
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-06-23
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781472913562

The most famous sports book in the world, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has been published every year since 1864. Wisden 2015--the 152nd edition--contains coverage of every first-class game in every cricket nation, and 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 truly is a must-have for every cricket fan. A perennial bestseller in the UK.

The Wisden Collector's Guide

The Wisden Collector's Guide
Author: Jonathan Rice
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2011-11-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408165279

The Wisden Collector's Guide is the definitive companion to one of the world's most important sporting publications. It begins with an overview of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, introducing the original John Wisden and describing the history of the publication. The next section contains highlights and information from each of the 147 editions, including bibliographic details (page extent, price, reprints etc), excerpts from the best articles, cricketers of the year, obituaries, and noteworthy events and matches. There is also additional information of interest to collectors and historical context in the form of news 'headlines' from each year. The guide concludes with a section dedicated to the serious collector. Covering everything from reprints to rebinds and from pagination to publishers, it is a vital resource for collectors. Affording a glimpse of the cricketing and historical landscape of the last 147 years, this is an accessible and fascinating volume for cricketing fans generally and a must-have item for Wisden collectors.

Wisden on the Great War

Wisden on the Great War
Author: Andrew Renshaw
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2014-05-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408832364

Readers of the 1917 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack were advised by the editor, Sydney Pardon: “Its chief feature is a record of the cricketers who have fallen in the War – the Roll of Honour, so far as the national game is concerned.” By the time the conflict was over, Wisden had carried almost 1,800 obituaries. Test players like Colin Blythe were far outnumbered by men with a lesser claim to fame, as schoolboy cricketers were sent out to the battlefields fresh from their playing fields. Amid the carnage and confusion, errors inevitably crept in: names were wrong and there were cases of mistaken identity. Some mistakes have lain buried in Wisden's pages for a century: as this book discloses, three men outlived their obituary by many years. All the obituaries have been updated in Wisden on the Great War with new information about the subjects' lives and deaths, their families and memorials, and ordered by the year of death. There is a listing of the 289 men who had played first-class cricket, while the 89 who did not get an obituary in Wisden are now recognised. The book also lists for the first time the 407 first-class cricketers who were decorated for gallantry, of whom 381 survived. Among the men included is an officer who as a boy was an inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and one whose agonising death on the battlefield is movingly described in Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That. These men now receive proper tribute, along with literary names that are already well-known, such as Rupert Brooke, who headed his school's bowling averages in 1906 and received an obituary in Wisden that mentioned that, at the time of his death, he 'had gained considerable reputation as a poet'. The wartime Wisdens have long been cherished by families whose relatives are commemorated in them, but the originals are scarce and command a high price. Now the lives of the men are properly celebrated, enhanced by many remarkable stories of courage and coincidence. The result is a poignant insight into the cohorts of cricketers who played the ultimate game for their country.

Dimming of the Day: The Cricket Season of 1914

Dimming of the Day: The Cricket Season of 1914
Author: Simon Sweetman
Publisher: Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2015-08-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1908165553

Much has been written about 1914 and the drift to war. This book examines what it was like playing and watching cricket that year and how the eventual coming of war affected the game. It challenges the common but lazy notion that the war brought a dramatic end to the era of sweetness, light and eternal sunshine that was the golden age of amateur cricket.

The Great Tamasha

The Great Tamasha
Author: James Astill
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2013-07-04
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408192209

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.

The Cricket War

The Cricket War
Author: Gideon Haigh
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2007
Genre: Cricket
ISBN: 0522854753

In May 1977, the cricket world woke to discover that a 39-year-old businessman called Kerry Packer had signed thirty-five elite international players for his own televised World Series Cricket. The Cricket War, now published with a new introduction and afterword, is the definitive account of the split that changed the game on the field and on the screen. In helmets, under lights, with white balls and in coloured clothes, the outlaw armies of Ian Chappell, Tony Greig and Clive Lloyd fought a daily battle of survival. In boardrooms and courtrooms, Packer and cricket's rulers fought a bitter war of nerves. A compelling account of top-class sporting life, The Cricket War also gives a unique insight into the motives and methods of the tycoon who became Australia's richest man.

Berkmann's Cricketing Miscellany

Berkmann's Cricketing Miscellany
Author: Marcus Berkmann
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408711753

Marcus Berkmann, author of the cricket classics Rain Men and Zimmer Men, returns to the great game with this irresistible miscellany of cricketing trivia, stories and more fascinating facts than Geoffrey Boycott could shake a stick of rhubarb at. Which England captain smoked two million cigarettes in his lifetime? Which Australian captain, asked what his favourite animal was, said 'Merv Hughes'? What did Hitler think of cricket? Which National Hunt trainer had a dog called Sobers? Who was described in his obituary as 'perhaps the only unequivocally popular man in Yorkshire'? No other sport is so steeped in oddness and eccentricity. There's the only Test player ever to be executed for murder, the only first-class cricketer to die on the Titanic, and the only bestselling author to catch fire while playing at Lord's. (It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The ball hit a box of matches in his pocket.) All cricket is here, including an XI entirely made up of players who share their names with freshwater fish.

Cricketing Lives

Cricketing Lives
Author: Richard H. Thomas
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2022-08-22
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1789143721

As famous for its complicated rules as it is for its contentious (and lengthy) matches, cricket is the quintessentially English sport. Or is it? From cricket in literature to sticky wickets, Cricketing Lives is a paean to the quirky characters and global phenomenon that are cricket. Cricket is defined by the characters who have played it, watched it, reported it, ruled upon it, ruined it, and rejoiced in it. Humorous and deeply affectionate, Cricketing Lives tells the story of the world’s greatest and most incomprehensible game through those who have shaped it, from the rustic contests of eighteenth-century England to the spectacle of the Indian Premier League. It’s about W. G. Grace and his eye to his wallet; the invincible Viv Richards; and Sarah Taylor, “the best wicketkeeper in the world.” Richard H. Thomas steers a course through the despair of war, tactical controversies, and internecine politics, to reveal how cricket has always warmed our hearts as nothing else can.