|
Read Review <back
to archive
|
Spirit of Cricket Reflections on Play and Life By Mike Brearley
Release date: 18th August, 2020
Publisher: Constable
List Price: Ł20.00
Our Price: Ł13.60
You Save: Ł6.4 (32%)
Buy Now
|
As his previous literary efforts (The Art of Captaincy; Mike Brearley on Cricket; The Ashes Retained) confirm, Mike Brearley is a thoughtful and meticulous author. He regularly displayed similar traits when captaining England (he did so on 31 occasions, losing only four Tests) and he applies them again in Spirit of Cricket, a book he was born to write.
Brearley is an intelligent guide, well-qualified to lead readers through cricketâs occasionally byzantine moral maze, although not everyone will agree with their pilotâs opinions.
Heâs no fan of sledging, for instance, declaring that âWhatever its content, sledging goes against the spirit of cricket.â Like an accomplished lawyer, he presents his anti-sledging case with authority, noting with regret that former Australian captain Steve Waugh had âshifted the moral landscape in his use of the term âmental disintegration,â thus making it even more sinister than sledging.
When individuals are undermined in this way, it can have devastating consequences (think Jonathan Trott in 2013-14), although Waugh first heard the phrase from his captain, Allan Border, who used it tactically, to undermine England, by delaying a declaration they fully expected. Brearley considers this part of the game legitimate, writing that âUnsettling and demoralising the opposition is an acceptable aim of competitive sport.â
There are lighter moments, primarily because thereâs often a thin line between banter and sledging; it could be argued that the former relies upon the sledgee having the presence of mind to respond to the sledgor.
When Surreyâs Jimmy Ormond, playing his first (of two) Tests in 2001 was told by Mark Waugh (twin brother of Steve): âMate, what are you doing out here? Youâre no way good enough to play for England.â Ormond replied: âAt least Iâm the best player in my own family.â
Among other contentious matters, Brearley acknowledges that ball-tampering has been a feature of cricket from its earliest incarnation. However, when Australian Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball in a Test against South Africa at Cape Town in 2018, his captain, Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner (as well as Bancroft) were banned by the Australian board because the action wasnât spontaneous but planned. This, suggests Brearley, highlighted a âprevalent attitudeâ, ie win at all costs, which went directly against the spirit of cricket.
We once looked upon cricketers as arbiters of fair play; Spirit of Cricket will have many readers wondering whether that spirit has been compromised in the pursuit of riches.
|
<back to archive
|
|


|