Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History from Pitch to Page

438 Pages·2021·23.411 MB·English

by  Richard H. Thomas

CRICKETING LIVES

CRICKETING
LIVES
A CHARACTERFUL HISTORY
FROM PITCH TO PAGE
RICHARD H. THOMAS
FOREWORD BY
DANIEL NORCROSS
REAKTION BOOKS
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
44–48 Wharf Road
London n1 7ux, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2021
Copyright © Richard H. Thomas 2021
Foreword © Daniel Norcross 2021
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publishers
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ Books Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 78914 371 3
CONTENTS
GLOSSARY
9
FOREWORD
17
INTRODUCTION
19
1 LUMPY, MYNN AND SILVER BILLY

Until the Mid-nineteenth Century 22
2 THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’, GRACE AND TRUMPER

The Turn of the Twentieth Century 33
3 MORE GOLDEN AGE CHAMPIONS
Victorians and Edwardians 43
4 GENTLEMEN, PLAYERS,
VARSITY AND ROSES
Background Developments 57
5 THE GREATEST RIVALRY
Even Bigger Background Developments 65
6 GOOD FOR NOTHING AND NOBODY
The First World War 80
7 GOVERNANCE, GROUNDS, GRANDEES,
BOOKS AND BENEFACTORS
Three Hundred Years of Organization and Altruism 92
8 BOXING, SOUND THRASHINGS
AND THE BIG SHIP
The 1920s 111
9 TOURING, TENNYSON AND ROLLO
Still Mainly in the 1920s 121
10 ROOT, TICH, LEARIE AND SANDHAM
The 1920s Become the 1930s 131
11 BRADMAN AND HAMMOND
The Greatest, but for One Man 142
12 OLD FRIENDS FALL OUT
The 1930s 152
13 NAYUDU, VIZZY, VERITY, GRIMMETT,
GIMBLETT AND SMITH
More from the 1930s 171
14 CRICKET ON THE CUSP OF WAR
Even More from the 1930s 182
15 VICTIMS, SURVIVORS AND INVINCIBLES
The 1940s 193
16 NEW STARTS, NEW STARS AND
CARIBBEAN SKIES
The 1940s and 1950s 208
17 BRYLCREEM BOYS
More from the 1940s and 1950s 220
18 SENSITIVE SPINNERS
The Mid-1950s 230
19 TIED TEST AND TUMULT
The 1960s 239
20 SMALL CHANGES, BIG CHARACTERS
More from the 1960s 252
21 SHORTER FORMATS, NEW STARS
The 1960s and 1970s 262
22 PARADISE LOST, PARADISE REGAINED
From the 1960s to the 1990s 272
23 THE HOLY TRINITY
Nine Decades of Writers and Talkers 285
24 WORLD CUPS AND WORLD BEATERS
From the 1970s to the 1990s 295
25 REVOLUTIONS AND REBELS
The 1970s to the New Millennium 311
26 ONE MAN’S SALVATION
1981 324
27 WOMEN’S CRICKET
A Century of Inequality 332
28 CRICKET WILL NEVER DIE
A New Millennium 345
APPENDIX
The Laws of Cricket at a Glance 357
REFERENCES
365
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
423
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
427
PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
429
INDEX
431

GLOSSARY
Action – As in ‘bowling action’. The individual, often idiosyncratic
way a bowler delivers the ball.
All out – The end of an innings, when all wickets (usually ten) have
been taken, leaving one batsman ‘not out’.
All-rounder – A player adept at batting and bowling, or, sometimes,
batting and wicketkeeping.
Amateur – One who plays without pay. Very old-fashioned.
Ashes – Small urn of dust contested by England and Australia.
Asterisk – * Next to a batsman’s score means ‘not out’.
Average – Measure of quality. The higher the better for batsmen,
the lower the better for bowlers.
Bails – Small pieces of wood on top of the stumps.
Beamer – Head-high delivery that doesn’t bounce. Frowned upon.
Big Bash – Twenty20 competition in Australia.
Blazer – Formal cricket gear, often worn by captains at the toss.
Blue – Awarded to those representing some universities at senior
level.