Cricket
As evidence of eccentricity I submit to you that Whistlestop Bookshop’s website has a page dedicated to cricket, a worldwide bat-and-ball sport that is generally and comprehensively NOT understood in the United States. As with most interests, I came upon it in literature, which is why I include fiction titles here. I also became intrigued by the excellent cricket reporting in The Times and the Sunday Times of London. To a comical extent I can be mystified by the details, but the writing is superb — imagine being able to appreciate poetry while having only a brush of understanding of the language. Cricket, no surprise, is also a manifestation of history, both English and the British Empire, and of culture (the spinning creativity of countries affected by such history). It is rich and powerful in metaphors, which lends itself to literature — and thus we have returned to my continuing education. And I hope, perhaps, to yours. I am always on the alert for more good books on cricket — a bit challenging in the US but worth the effort.
Cricket Explained: From Grubbers to Googlies, a Beginner's Guide to the Great English Pastime
Cricket Explained: From Grubbers to Googlies, a Beginner's Guide to the Great English Pastime
Cricket Explained offers the sports enthusiast a user-friendly introduction to baseball's British cousin, a game that shares with America's national pastime the common ancestor "rounders".
This is the definitive beginner's guide to the game of cricket, written by a world authority on the sport, the co-inventor of the Coopers & Lybrand World Cricket Ratings System. Cricket Explained takes the reader from the game's fundamentals -- basic rules, terminology, equipment -- to the finer points of strategy, individual playing styles, and cricket lore.
The book includes a combined glossary/index for easy reference and is illustrated throughout with the lighthearted drawings of British cartoonist Mark Stevens. So even if you don't know "short leg" from "silly mid off" or a bowler from a batsman, you'll come away from Cricket Explained with an understanding for this truly international sport which, like baseball, is loved both for its elegant simplicity and its vexing complexity.
Among the topics covered in Cricket Explained's concise, user-friendly entries are:
-- Cricket's history
-- Making sense of the action on the field
-- Batsmen and the batting order
-- Fielders and fielding positions
-- Fielding and batting tactics
-- Scoring and statistics
-- Bowling strategy
-- How many players are required
-- How runs are scored, outs are made, and a game is won
-- Umpires and the rules
-- Bowlers and their individual styles
-- Different types of cricket played throughout the world