We’ve read and reviewed all of this year’s best cricket books – from biographies and cricket history books, to more light-hearted tomes – and here we’re picking out the best dozen
The Cricketer | 14/07/2023 at 12:00
Cricket lovers really are spoil for choice when trying to pick out cricket books to read. Surely no other sport boasts the quality of the written word that cricket can muster?
It's perhaps a consequence of those long, hazy summer days of yore that attracts the finest minds to produce cricket books at a rate quicker than Jonny Bairstow accumulates runs. So whether you're buying for your own entertainment or on the hunt for a perfect cricket gift, you'll find the pick of this year's best cricket books right here.
We've read and reviewed all of this year's best cricket books – from biographies and cricket history books, to more light-hearted tomes – and here we’re picking out the dozen best.
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1. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2023 (Edited by Lawrence Booth)
£57 (Bloomsbury, 1,568pp)
The definitive retrospective of the 2022 cricket season is back to its best – all 1,568 pages of it. As well as the usual serving of scorecards and statistics, this year's edition covers topics as diverse as the inevitable encroachment of the IPL, warnings against private investment, tributes to Shane Warne, games attended by Elizabeth II, cricket in Ukraine, Jane Austen, and colostomy bags.
What The Cricketer said: "These days, we are more likely to find consolation, not influence, in Wisden, and again that joy exists in abundance." – 5 stars
Click here to buy Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2023from Amazon
Click here to buy Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2023from Waterstones
2. On the Ashes by Gideon Haigh
£17 (Allen & Unwin, 416pp)
One of today's very best cricket writers, Haigh has produced an archive of 80-odd Ashes vignettes that mostly centre around the individuals and characters - from Harry Trott and Ken Farnes all the way through to Allan Border and James Anderson - that have made this storied rivalry as endlessly compelling as it is.
What The Cricketer said: "Beautifully writtenand tells you things that you probablydidn’t know." – 4.5 stars
Click here to buy On the Ashes from Amazon
Click here to buy On the Ashes from Waterstones
3.Warne in Wisden: an anthology (Edited by Richard Whitehead)
£18.99 (John Wisden & Co, 288pp)
Richard Whiteheadcontributes some of the most engagingobituaries to Wisden Cricketers’ Almanackeach year, and he has done a fine jobcurating this rich and diverse account of the game's greatest leg-spinner - from colourful long-form restrospectives to in-depth dissections of his bowling.
What The Cricketer said: "Richard Whitehead has done a top jobpulling together an anthology on theblond bombshell." – 4.5 stars
Click here to buy Warne in Wisden from Amazon
Click here to buy Warne in Wisden from Waterstones
4. Disappearing World: Our Eighteen First-Class Cricket Counties by Scyld Berry
£19.99 (Pitch Publishing, 286pp)
A joyous eulogy rather than a frustrated epitaph, over 18 colourful and erudite essays the doyen of living cricket writers shows his soft spot for each of the first-class counties.
What The Cricketer said: "Scyld Berry is the best critical friend the game has known." – 4 stars
Click here to buy Disappearing Worldfrom Amazon
Click here to buy Disappearing World from Waterstones
5. The Tour: The Story of the England Cricket Team Overseas 1877-2022 by Simon Wilde
£20 (Simon & Schuster, 592pp)
This lengthy but hugely readable tome from one of today’s most popular cricket writers entertaining and informative account of 146 years of overseas assignments by England men’s teams. From captains selected for their speech-making abilities, players missing out die to misdemeanours, through to those who suffered acute homesickness, it charts the extraordinary evolution of the touring experience.
What The Cricketer said: "Superbly researched mix of analysis and anecdote; not presented chronologically as many writers might have done, but thematically, with fact-filled boxes concluding each chapter." – 4 stars
Click here to buy The Tourfrom Amazon
Click here to buy The Tourfrom Waterstones
£22 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 268pp)
White Hot begins with a brilliant first line: "InEnglish men’s sport, winning normallymeans you’re about to lose." But this time, England didn’t flop and are the first team to hold both World Cup trophies simultaneously. This bookcharts England’s rise to twin summits fromthe nadir of the 2015 World Cup, using a fantastic array of interviews and statistics.
What The Cricketer said: "An impressivenumber of more than 40 intervieweessupply fresh voicesthat are threaded through the pages,producing a readable, coherent and veryinformative whole." – 4 stars
Click here to buy White Hot from Amazon
Click here to buy White Hot from Waterstones
7. How to be a Cricket Fan: A Life in 50 Artefacts from WG to Wisden by Matthew Appleby
£18.99 (Pitch Publishing, 318pp)
Matthew Appleby describes how the game can become a near-obsession in this funny and sentimental chronicle, but there is far more to this affectionate book than a must-have list of memorabilia.
What The Cricketer said: "The love of a son courses through a uniquely-framed biography." – 4 stars
Click here to buy How to be a Cricket Fanfrom Amazon
Click here to buy How to be a Cricket Fanfrom Waterstones
8. The Bodyline Fix: How Women Saved Cricket by Marion Stell
£19.99 (University of Queensland Press, 204pp)
England’s first women's Ashes tour went much deeper than cricket, and The Bodyline Fix fills the gap fills in a massive gap in most cricket fans' knowledge by honing in on the earliest international tours and social mores of the time.
What The Cricketer said: "Stell is a natural storyteller, interweaving players' memories with a trawl through the archives and historical nuggets." – 4 stars
Click here to buy The Bodyline Fixfrom Amazon
£22.99 (Pitch Publishing, 448pp)
In this passionate account of England’s early tours to South Africa, celebrates the achievements of the host nation on the field, but never loses sight of off-field affairs. The political and social background is always there to remind us cricket is not just a game.
What The Cricketer said: "The book rightfully places itself in the tradition of Mike Marqusee, Ramachandra Guha and Derek Birley. Packed with detail." – 4 stars
Click here to buy Swallows and Hawkefrom Amazon
Click here to buy Swallows and Hawkefrom Waterstones
10. Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and the Mind by Mike Brearley
£22 (Constable, 304pp)
England’s mostcerebral captain is in typicallythought-provoking mood in his latest book, but there's more than cricket in these pages; rather it's a tome thatis constantlyseeking the best passage between artand science, body and mind, sport andstudy, reason and emotion, vagueness andprecision, creativity and analysis, thinkingand doing, cricket and philosophy, cricketand psychoanalysis, abstract and concrete,literalness and metaphor.
What The Cricketer said: "He has written a wonderfullychallenging book. It may not be the book wewant; but it might just be the book we need." – 4 stars
Click here to buy Turning Over the Pebblesfrom Amazon
Click here to buy Turning Over the Pebblesfrom Waterstones
11. Sultan: A Memoir by Wasim Akram (with Gideon Haigh)
£18.99 (Hardie Grant, 304pp)
Wasim Akram has delighted millions down the years and the Pakistan legend certainly has an extraordinary story to tell, but a surprising sense of melancholy feels as prevalent as joy in this autobiography in which he notes that "My generation are closer to the end than the beginning" and dwells on the premature deaths of contemporaries Dean Jones, Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds.
What The Cricketer said: "Tightly and unselfishly ghost-written by Gideon Haigh." – 3.5 stars
Click here to buy Sultan from Amazon
Click here to buy Sultan from Waterstones
12. An Island's Eleven by Nicholas Brookes
£25 (The History Press, 512pp)
The best cricket book of last year completes our chart. An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket is the definitive account of the island nation's rise to prominence in the sport; from its roots in British colonialism, inevitably through to their incredible World Cup final win in 1996. One of our very favourites from last year and winner of the Cricket Society & MCC Book of the Year Award 2023.
What The Cricketer said: "A sizeable hole has been filled in cricket literature with the publication of this exceptional history of Sri Lankan cricket. Authoritative, painstakingly researched and abounding with wonderful anecdotes and first-hand accounts, it brings to life one of cricket’s most colourful stories." – 5 stars
Click here to buy An Island's Elevenfrom Amazon
Click here to buy An Island's Elevenfrom Waterstones
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