Book Of The Year Award > 2010 > And God Created Cricket

Hmmmm. The first law of cricket books is that humorous cricket books generally aren't. Simon Hughes, that excellent TV analyst and someone who has written amusingly on his career in and beyond cricket, has now adjusted his sights to have a crack at cricket from beginning to now.

If Arthur Mailey hadn't appropriated the title, it might have been called "10 for 66 and All That" but perhaps Mr. Hughes was hoping for a denunciation from Richard Dawkins that might assist sales. The book itself, after about four pages on cricket's origins, is a pretty brisk ramble through the opening two hundred years and a bit of mainstream cricket from, let's say, Hambledon to Stanford. One of the great plusses of the book is that, despite the relentlessly jokey tone which does tend to grate after a while, some smart parallels are drawn. Is there such a difference between Stanford and the 2nd Duke of Richmond in the early eighteenth century who put up sizeable purses for matches, seemed to own the teams that played for him and generally behaved as if he owned the game of cricket? It could be reasonably argued that to some extent this was true of both gentlemen? Except, I suppose, that the Duke of Richmond didn't get caught, or have to wear an orange jumpsuit, or have access to Leonardo Da Vinci's plans for a helicopter. Mind you, Stanford never stopped a match early when his team looked like losing – but then he didn't have to, given England's performance.

Hidden within this book is a very good book struggling to get out which would be a warts and all view of cricket and cricketers who played with the author. Simon Hughes really begins to enjoy himself when talking about County Cricket from his era and the Middlesex dressing-room, in particular. Cricketers like Phil Edmonds and John Emburey are a writer's dream and despite his constant, gentle mocking, Simon Hughes never underestimated the quality of both spinners and other larger than life characters from his era. His throwaway comments on other leading cricketers are immensely revealing and show an understanding of both character and cricket. The really good parts of the book are the occasional tangents away from the narrative like the extract from the 1800 Laws discovered in a quest to the MCC archive room at Lord's, one of the funniest passages in the book. "The wicketkeeper must remain quietly at a reasonable space behind the wicket and not stir till the bowler has delivered the ball." Would that it were so today. In a curious way it might have been a better result if Simon Hughes had written David Fulton's book on Ashes captains and vice-versa but although it does take a while to get accustomed to the general tone, the book does become more readable as you continue and a little perseverance will pay dividends.

review by John Symons

Publisher
Doubleday,
Transworld Publishers,
61-63 Uxbridge Road,
LONDON W5 5SA
£20
www.rbooks.co.uk