On Cricket : A good book to read

On Cricket : A good book to read

Watching the game of Cricket is always a pleasure for cricket lovers like me and also enjoyable to read the literature of this beautiful game. There are so many writers have written literature on Cricket and they are claimants to be the best writers on cricket. Cricket writers like Neville Curdus, C L R James, Gideon Haigh, Allan Rose, John Arlott, David Foot, Ramchandra Guha, Stephen Chalke, Sujit Mukherjee, Rahul Bhattacharya, Boria Majumdar and Mike Brearley. After reading the their writings, one can easily conclude that a cricket writer is one who studies the game and then present it in a such way which makes readers to understand game so that they can enjoy the game at the time of watching.  This feeling you will get when you are reading the book written by Mike Brearley and book name is On Cricket. Prior to this book, Brearley has written two books on cricket, namely,”The Art of Captaincy and On Form”.  The book On Cricket is having delightful essays which are not only providing various aspects of game but also includes short discussion on key figures in the game. This book is exploration of human qualities of humbler players.

From:  Yogesh Gogwekar.

John Michael Brearley popularly known as Mike Brearley was one of the best England Captains. To understand his talent as a captain, one should look at the way he orchestrated the 1981 Ashes series which is one of the extraordinary reversal of sporting history. He is psychoanalyst, practicing psychotherapist and knows about life beyond boundary. Therefore, he is good motivational speaker and his writing always gives us philosophical approach towards the game. Born on 28th April 1942, he married with Indian woman Manna Sarabhai who was architect and designer. He met her during the MCC tour of 1976-77 in Ahmedabad.

In this book, Brearley reflects on the game by ranging from influence of his father and his mentors to the controversial aspects of the games which includes cheating and innovation. Brearley has written on his heroes like Viv Richards, Bishan Singh Bedi and Denis Lille and considered team as a game changer. He has also written about four West Indian bowlers who threatened the wicket as well as the body. Now we are missing such type of bowling.  He has appreciated two Pakistani Cricketers Sarfaz Nawaz who discovered reverse swing (uncanny ability to move the old ball in the air) and Saqlain Mushtaq for introducing doosra i.e. a leg break delivery bowled with an off break action in the game.

In Indian Connection, Brearley considered the four Indian Cricket batsmen as best batsmen in the world. They are Ranjit Singh, Mansur Ali khan Patudi, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohali. He said Sachin Tendulkar is the Don Bradman of India. He has also written about Bishan Bedi and his bowling style and said most generous man on and off the field. He said that Bishan Singh Bedi is/was his hero.

He praised Sangakkara for his batting success and his efforts to improvise his batting. According to Brearley, Sangakkara was the sturdiest and most correct batsman. His writings about Viv Richards and Shane Warne are fantastic as the contributions of these two players were so great that even words are falling short to praise them. Brearley has managed in his own intelligent way.

At the time of considering best wicket keeper, Sayed Kirmani of India could not get place in his book. Brearley mentioned only two wicket keepers Rodney March of Australia and Alan Knot of England. Similarly, he has not considered Kapil Dev of India who was one of remarkable cricketers. 

In this book, he has also discussed the infamous D’Oliviera affair. D’Oliviera a south African born and allrounder left his country due to racism and settled down in England as he was mixed –race cricketer. England had selected him for South African tour of 1968 but objected by South Africa due to political reasons. Due to this, England cancelled the tour. He also described the Ball tampering by Australian players and match fixing cases of Pakistani and south African players.

Brearley also gave the fair account of cricket commentators like Harold Pinter, John Arlott and Ian Chapel. He said that John Arlott romanticized the cricket at the time of Cricket commentary and made this game more interesting. 

It is a wonderful book to read which covers all aspects of the game. It is nothing but historiography of game of Cricket. I urged every cricket lover to read this book to enjoy spirit of the game.

Mumbai

08/02/2020.