A Social History Of English Cricket

"A Social History of English Cricket . Derek Birley points out a series of very interesting facts, not in a dry way but in a very easy to read way, starting with the fact that cricket began as a betting game in which one aristocrat would bet another that he could score more runs with the aristocrats doing the batting and the servants doing all the bowling. They’d place huge sums on the result. It was also a game which divided the gentleman amateur from the paid professional. The gents would go out to play from one door, and the professionals from another. They’d approach the wicket from a different gate, and each side would have both gents and professionals. Except that when a celebrity amateur like Dr W G Grace appeared he was not, of course, playing for free. He’d get appearance fees and he’d be put up in lovely hotels. It’s such a brilliant read. It takes you through all the main blow-ups of cricket – the Bodyline series, the South African crisis – and on the way there are lots of cursory asides, not doctrinaire. not done with malice, but gentle academic dismissals of cretinous fat boys through English history."