PLAYING HARD BALL is a unique sports book, a cultural comparison of two national games - cricket, English in origin and American baseball - written from the viewpoint of a top-class practitioner of both codes. Ed Smith - the young Cambridge University and Kent batsman - has spent the winters since 1998 in Spring Training with the New York Mets baseball team. It has enabled Ed to contrast and compare arguably the two most iconic of sports from the inside. In fact, baseball had a thriving fo...

In the twenty years since Allan Border retired as Australian cricket captain he's been one of the game's closest and most astute observers. His views on cricket - based on his experiences as a player, a captain, a selector and a commentator - are fascinating, forthright and informed by more than three decades of involvement at the game's highest level.In Cricket as I See It he gives us his wisdom and opinions on the game he loves - from epic Tests, the rising power of Indi...

Andrew Strauss, one of the most successful and respected England cricket captains of the modern era, announced his retirement from professional cricket at the end of 2012. In DRIVING AMBITION he gives a candid account of the highs and lows of his remarkable career for Middlesex and England.An outstanding opening batsman and natural leader, Andrew Strauss captained his country in 50 of his 100 Tests. During his time in charge, England emerged from a turbulent and controversial perio...

If cricket is a religion in India, then Tendulkar is God. Not just a deity, but the only one. When he bats a billion Indians tune in. Stadiums fill when he comes to the crease. High-class batsmen ahead of him in the batting order have been booed because the crowd cannot wait to see Sachin. And when he is out, the ground will often empty as quickly as it filled. This collection, edited by Wisden's John Stern, covers Tendulkar's 20 thrilling years in Test cricket, from the highs - as he became ...

An inside account of England’s Ashes triumph in Australia 2010/11.England’s much celebrated Ashes win by two clear matches with three comprehensive innings victories must rank as one of the finest of any English cricket team from any era. It kept people at home glued to their televisions, computers and radios – often all three at the same time – long into the night as the bitter winter and a depressed economy were forced into the background by the sheer joy and exhilaration of givi...

A fascinating biography of an English country gentleman and cricketer who becomes a devoted missionary. Contents Include Foreword by Alfred B. Buxton, Author's preface, A visit to a theatre and it's consequences, Three Etonians get a shock, An all England cricketer, The crisis, A revival breaks out among students, C.T. becomes a Chinaman, He gives away a fortune, An Irish girl and a dream, United to fight for Jesus, Perils and hardships in inland China, On the American campus, Six years in...

There are many cricket books, and they are all the same. 'Don't Tell Goochie', autobiographical insights of nights on the tiles in Delhi with Lambie and the boys; 'Fruit cake days', a celebrated humourist recalls 'ball' - related banter of yore; and Wisden, a deadly weapon when combined with a thermos flask. Rain Men is different. Like the moment the genius of Richie Benaud first revealed itself to you, it is a cricketing epiphany, a landmark in the literature of the game.Shining t...

In 1985 Mike Brearley published The Art of Captaincy, revealing how he steered Middlesex and England to victory with his team of first-class cricketers. He got the absolute best out of his players, inspiring Ian Botham to new heights against the Australians in 1981. Few cricketers have had a greater impact on the amateur game than these two.Every captain would love Brearley's degree in people, as well as a hardhitting all-rounder like Botham. But theirs was a barely recogn...

______________________A fascinating examination of cricket in the nineteenth century by 'the most entertaining historian alive' (Spectator)'Few historians have the power to make you feel you actually inhabit the times they are writing about. Kynaston does' Sunday Times, Books of the DecadeOn a hot morning in July 1898, the sporting world gathered at Lord's to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of WG Gr...

Yorkshire CCC On This Day is fully endorsed by the club and chronicles, in diary form, the major events in their history. With individual entries for every day, and multiple listings for more historic and busier days, the book includes all the club's big matches, cup finals, significant events, and sensational signings.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell once said: 'An international coach is something the Australian team travels in around England.'It is a view that has plenty of subscribers. After all, by the time players reach first-class or certainly international level, surely they shouldn’t need to be told how to play, should they?Which begs the question: what does the coach of an international cricket team actually do and why has the role assumed such importance in the modern game ...

Sir Curtly Ambrose is one of the most famous cricket players of all time.He is also notorious for his silence.Now, for the first time, Curtly will tell his story.One of the leading – and most lethal - fast bowlers of all time, Curtly Ambrose played 98 Tests and 176 One Day Internationals for the West Indies, and for much of his career topped the ICC player rankings. He was an integral part of the iconic West Indies ...