Reading and cricket

I love reading- but I must admit I found it very hard to read full length books early on- most books couldn't hold my attention for too long.

That was when a friend of mine gifted me Don Bradman's "Farewell to Cricket" and that book changed my reading habits forever.

The book was about cricket, a game I love, and it had incredible insights about not just on the game, but about life in general. I remember underlining portions of the book, re-reading it, and even to this day, I do at times read some of those underlined sections and Don's wisdom, his insights, his views on critics, on fame, on living an honorable life never cease to amaze me. From the time I read that book, I was hooked onto reading, more cricket books first and then books on other topics I was interested in. For some reason though, a cricket classic eluded me till last week when I finally lay my hands on Beyond A Boundary.

Written by CLR James way back in 1963, the book is a product of the anti-colonial struggle, and the emergence of West Indies cricket as a serious challenge to the domination of England and Australia. It is at once both a political and social commentary on the way cricket became a symbol for freedom of expression and a democratization of power that was ahead of its time. I have been reading the book over the last week and I can already see why it is rated amongst the best cricket books ever written.

Amongst the contemporary cricket writers, I think the best is Gideon Haigh, who writes regularly for the Guardian. Pick up any one of his books and you would get the best contemporary perspective on a great game!