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Featured Categories : Sports, Hobbies & Games : Cricket : Reference
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In what is widely considered the definitive work on the subject, The Art Of Captaincy, Mike Brearley, a psychoanalyst by trade these days--but most famously the England cricket captain behind that dramatic 1981 Ashes victory--delivers his thesis on what makes a leader, on and off the pitch. In his five-year Test career Brearley, a long-standing county captain but never much better than a relatively modestly talented cricketer himself, led England 31 times--winning 18, drawing 9, losing only 4--and explores the key elements of his theories via candid reflections on those experiences.Willis, who was to bowl the next over, was indignant with Botham. His main concern was that I shouldn't let him bowl anymore ... When I arrived at slip, Botham was fuming too. Meanwhile Lever was disgruntled at being taken off ... and the umpires were threatening to report me [for allowing bouncers to be bowled at the tail-enders]. And we were in a winning position! To restore some sanity to the proceedings, I told Hendricks to get loose to bowl the next over.
A forthright, unapologetically intelligent analyst of the players he captained, and of his own influence, or lack of it, on those team's successes and failures, Brearley brings top-flight cricket to life in a way that speaks to both the cognoscenti and the novice.
With sections on team selection, the captain's role in the dressing room and on tour, as well as detailed consideration of tactics, Brearley's scope is impressively broad, but it is his ability to dissect that great intangible of sport--the personality of the individual--that stamps his theorising with the hallmark of greatness. He is particularly fascinating on the future England captains he led in 1981--Ian Botham ("powerful, inventive, sound...he became highly sensitive to criticism"), Bob Willis ("blinkered as a captain and had an abstracted air") and David Gower ("like Willis, he appeared to be bulldozed by Botham").
Out of print for far too long, the 1985 text has been constructively updated for the 2001 Ashes Series--including new photographs and Brearley's typically adept study of current England captain Nasser Hussain. This is a classic work: engrossing, informative, and as entertaining as it is intelligent. --Alex Hankin
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The 2002 edition of cricket's bible marks the second year in Graeme Wright's second stint in the editorial seat, and contains much for readers to ponder. Alongside the usual plethora of facts and figures, the last year has provided much more for Wisden to get its teeth into. Just as the current Australian side has taken Test cricket to new levels, several of the test series covered by the 2002 Almanack seem to have upped the ante in terms of excitement, notably the Aussies' glorious but ultimately unsuccessful rubber in India last year. Meanwhile, despite the disappointing defeat in the home Ashes series the England team has continued to take forward steps under the leadership of Hussain and Fletcher, particularly in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. If they say that a strong Yorkshire side means a strong England, the white rose county's first championship for 33 years should mean more good news for the English.Clearly Wisden has much to cover on the international scene, and it does so with all its usual style. Three major articles on the career of Sir Donald Bradman are included (last year's Wisden was printed too shortly after his death to pay tribute to him properly). Peter Roebuck, meanwhile, looks back on the test career of former England captain Michael Atherton who retired from the international game last summer. As ever, the articles live up to the highest standards. Elsewhere, the usual mine of information seems to get deeper every year, while the five cricketers of the year unusually fail to include an Englishman, but are unsurprisingly dominated by Australians in the form of Gillespie, Gilchrist and Martyn, all performers of the very highest calibre. They are joined in the quintet by Zimbabwean Andy Flower and Indian VVS Laxman, whose epic 281 in Calcutta not only helped end Australia's record-breaking run of test wins, but also enabled India to win the match after following-on, and to turn the tide in that classic series. A fine and correct selection, which encapsulates the judgement of a cricketing institution, the 2002 version will surely proves as popular as its 138 predecessors. And just as the Almanack itself will be treasured, the excellent little paperback which accompanies it will provoke much discussion, purporting as it does to name the 40 leading cricketers in the world today. --Trevor Crowe
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As certain as the changing of the seasons, the new edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack heralds the forthcoming season with a review of all things cricketing over the previous year. The third millennium proves no exception on this account, as the famous yellow volume clocks up another year. Yet the 2000 edition, the 137th, is something special, looking back over the whole of the last century of cricket, as well as the year just passed.As part of this celebration, the five cricketers of the century are listed, and what a selection it is. Alongside the incomparable Bradman stand Hobbs, Sobers, Viv Richards and Warne. The selection is one for aficionados to debate for many a long evening, and that's just for starters. How about the best 100 matches of the century, one for every year? They're all here too. And that's the beauty of it--Wisden 2000 is guaranteed to bring back many a golden memory.
Elsewhere, this year's edition features the usual array of articles, facts, figures, reports and miscellany, all edited in a meticulous but lively manner by Matthew Engel, sadly for the last time. This year's contributions include a retrospective on the career of retired Australian captain Mark Taylor, a look back at the 1999 World Cup in England, and a moving tribute to the late great West Indian paceman, Malcolm Marshall. With such breadth, the appeal is as clear as ever.
As a true chronicler of sport, Wisden has been unequalled for many years. Like its predecessors, the 2000 edition will bring pleasure to cricket lovers the world over. --Trevor Crowe
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