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The 54th edition of Playfair reviews the victorious summer 2000 series with West Indies and Zimbabwe, as well as the England winter tours of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The book is packed with all the essential information required to follow events on the cricket field, with unrivalled up-to-the-minute statistical detail on all first-class players registered in the UK. The highlights of the 2000 season are fully covered and there will be a preview of the Ashes series and the series with Pakistan in 2001, and fixture lists for the coming season. ... Read more

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Cutting Edge Cricket has brought together unrivalled advice on playing and coaching cricket from 38 of Australia’s most legendary players and coaches. Covering every aspect of cricket play you will learn and appreciate how the greatest players in Australia’s cricket history reached the pinnacle of their game.

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For most of his professional life Michael Parkinson has been a highly regarded sports journalist. This consistently entertaining collection of his best articles reminds us that his first love is cricket and the people who excel at it. His ambition to play for England was thwarted, but not before he opened the batting with a young Dickie Bird at Barnsley.Along with hilarious memories of his cricket mad father and a lost youth emulating his heroes in street games, Michael Parkinson has written compelling descriptions of great players he has known and the moments or matches during which they became famous. Unsurprisingly, there is an edge to what the author has to say about cricket administrators and the way the game is run; the book is a sheer joy to read and written with the author's easy assurance. ... Read more

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An exciting addition to the range of Haynes manuals, this is the complete guide to playing cricket, fully supported and endorsed by the English Cricket Board (ECB). From health and fitness through to training, bowling, batting, fielding, strategy, coaching and umpiring, every aspect of the game is analysed and explained in detail. Presented in an attractively designed and user-friendly style with numerous photographs and graphics, this manual is an essential reference book for the keen cricketer as well as an informative read for any sports fan. ... Read more

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Good for learning to play the game
This is a good guide (with many diagrams and pics)for those that a beginner level players who want to learn more about how to play the game.Not for those who want to learn about the rules of the game ... Read more

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A Must Own and a Must Read Indeed
If you are an avid cricket fan you should own "Legends of Cricket" even if you don't agree with the author's rankings. Each article is very informative and thoroughly researched. ... Read more

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"In a League of Their Own" is an insightful look at how many of the game's great players rate their best cricketers of the 20th and 21st century. One hundred World XI's have been selected. Players from the days of Jack Hobbs and Donald Bradman right up to Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar of the current day are all discussed. Find out which fast bowlers Sunil Gavaskar chose in his team - as one of the best opening batsmen of all time there is no better judge. Discover the most popular choices from over a century of Test cricket culminating in the best team of all-time selected by the greats themselves. ... Read more

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Howzat!?!
Everything you need to know about cricket, and an awful lot you don't! Great fun. Loved it. All Liam McCann's books are hilarious. ... Read more

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The Picador Book of Cricket celebrates the best writing on the game and includes many pieces that have been out of print for years. The older cricketing nations such as England and Australia are well represented here. So are the countries where the game is followed with the greatest passion: India, Pakistan and the West Indies. The books gallery of great writers includes Neville Cardus, C.L.R. James, John Arlott, V.S. Naipaul and Jack Fingleton. ... Read more

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A Delightful Anthology of Cricket Writing
This book is a rare delight to cricket lovers, coming as it does amidst a slew of inferior, thrashy books clearly designed to cash in on the almost religious fervor displayed by cricket fans from the Indian Sub-continent.

The Picador Book is essentially an anthology, reproducing some of the finest articles and essays on cricket, most of them almost impossible to find, and long out of print. It spans over a century of cricket, and devotes sections to the mandatory topics any cricketing anthology must have: - profiles on greats of the game, accounts of memorable test matches, and essays on trends, styles and themes. However, Guha has also chosen articles that celebrate the spirit of cricket, focusing on the small details that make cricket the game all of us love. Indeed, there is a section devoted to "Little known Heroes", where well known writers faithfully describe cricketers who may not have been successful on the big stage, but in some way, have endeared themselves to that author. Thus, the doyen of cricket writers, Sir Neville Cardus, lovingly writes about Yorkshire paceman Emmott Robinson, while in another piece, a Fiji fast bowler gets a glowing tribute!

The books prime attraction is the portraits of cricketing legends that cover more than half the book. This is a connoisseur's delight, with legends from W. G. Grace to Sachin Tendulkar featured. The book may seem to focus only on older players, but it is often easy to forget that we tend to equate players from the 1930s in the same breath as those from the 1900s. Thus, pieces on Victor Trumper and Wally Hammond represent eras as diverse as those of Sachin Tendulkar and Gary Sobers, and Guha takes care to present the pieces in as chronological a fashion as possible.

The list of writers, of course, is strictly A-List. Neville Cardus is there, as is Jack Fingleton. C.L.R. James, the author of "Beyond A Boundary", widely regarded as the finest book on cricket, is also well represented, as is one of India's finest cricket writers, Sujit Mukherjee. There are also rare pieces by John Arlott, C.B. Fry, and the most famous name of all, Sir V.S. Naipaul himself! Probably the only complaint that one could make of the list of writers is that Guha himself is not featured. His articles on cricket are masterpieces of the genre, combining rare facts, delightful insights, and a dry sense of humor, all of which have made him a household name among Indian cricket fans (at least, the more literate ones!). He has contributed an excellent introduction, though, as well as a piece at the end, on his fifty (yes, fifty!) favourite books on cricket.

Another complaint that could be made is that Guha, for all his claims of presenting as diverse a collection as possible, has under-represented writers from the Indian sub-continent, and even from South Africa. Indeed, most of the articles seem to be from English or Australian writers. To be fair, though, most of the finest pieces on the game have come from these two countries, and one must not rush to vilify him - as other reviews have done- without considering this.

Another feature of the book is "Styles and Themes", where he selects some excellent pieces on the game in general. Thus, there is Ray Robinson on left-handers, Keith Miller and Len Hutton on their all-time Ashes teams, and other pieces on grounds, styles, and even Wisden!

The Picador Book is a landmark in cricket literature, bringing together so many of the finest pieces on the game. In fact, the reader can open it at random, select an article, and read it, without losing any flow or continuity! True Cricket fan, heed this:- Without this book, your collection is rendered incomplete!! ... Read more

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When Australia defeated England for the first time on English soil in 1882, a mock obituary notice was inserted in the Sporting Times lamenting the 'death' of English cricket and stating that the body was to be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. Later, an urn containing ashes came to be recognised as the cricketing trophy, and now resides permanently at Lord's cricket ground.The mystery is this: where did the Ashes come from, and are they in fact still there' The author examines the official story and other, alternative suggestions, and details the personalities involved in the foundation of this great tradition.To understand the full significance of the Ashes to both countries, the author recounts the triumphant Australian tour of England in 1882, and the subsequent 'recovery' of the Ashes by England in Australia a year later.Cricket's Biggest Mystery: The Ashes is one of the most fascinating books to be written on the foundation of the competition for what must be one of sport's most unusual trophies. It will be a welcome addition to the library of every cricket enthusiast. ... Read more