Monday, January 3, 2011

Books of Cricketers

Cutting Edge: My AutobiographyCricketers love to play their games and many of them love to write about them. Fans always love to hear things from the horse's mouth. Cricket autobiographies had a head start with Sunny Days - Sunil Gavaskar's own Story, which he followed up with Idols and Straight Drive. All these are available in The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus. Erapalli Prasanna's One more over: An autobiography was also popular. Kapil Dev'sStraight from the Heart: An Autobiography came close to the popularity of Gavaskar's books. Sujit Mukherji's Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer is another popular book.

Shane Warne's Century: My Top 100 Test CricketersShane Warne's Century: My Top 100 Test Cricketers is the Australian bowlers view on other cricketers. Images of Waugh: A Cricketer's Journey is Steve Waugh's take on his life. All rounder Michael Bevan's The Best of Bevan: The World's Finest One-Day Cricketer Recalls His Most Memorable Moments (Armstrong, Geoff) is an interesting read. Ian Chappel's CHAPPELLI is every cricket fan's delight.

Fred Titmus: My Life in CricketEnglish cricketrs have penned a lot of autobiographies.Fred Titmus: My Life in Cricket, Colin Cowdrey's M. C. C.: Autobiography of a Cricketer (Coronet Books), Harold Larwood's THE LARWOOD STORY, A CRICKETER\'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Botham's Head On: Ian Botham: The Autobiography to name just a few. On captaincy Mike Brearley's The Art Of Captaincy is respected by lovers of the game.

From Pakistan comes Cutting Edge: My Autobiography, former captain's memoir about his cricketing days.

Cricket: The Essentials of the GameA Lot of Hard Yakka: Triumph and Torment - A County Cricketer's LifeThen there are autobiographies by lesser known cricketrs like Jamaican Eaton Swaby in The Firing Line - A Cricketer's Memoirs, English spinner Udal's Shaun Udal - My Turn to Spin: The Incredible Story of a Cult Cricketer, English county cricketer Simon Hughes' A Lot of Hard Yakka: Triumph and Torment - A County Cricketer's Life. and so on.
From the all time great Sir Richard Hadlee's pen comes his autobiography Rhythm and Swing: An Autobiography and a thoughtful analysis of the finer points of the game in Cricket: The Essentials of the Game.

Cricket biographies are many. But to get a bird's eye view of lives of most of the famous cricketers one should pick up World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary.

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