Dimensions
143 x 222 x 31mm
Michael Parkinson has had cricket on the brain all his life. He won match after match for his beloved Yorkshire both during lessons and on his way to and from school, and ably assisted by his equally cricket-mad father, he spent a disproportionate amount of his youth and early manhood plotting the Parkinson family's domination of English cricket.
A huge loss to the professional game, however, eventually proved journalism's gain, and Parkinson the enthusiastic player quickly became Parkinson the almost evangelical writer on the sport. First for his local South Yorkshire newspaper, then 'The Sunday Times' and 'Punch', and latterly through a whole host of renowned publications, Parkinson has become one of the nation's most respected commentators on this most English of preoccupations.
In this captivating and more often than not humorous collection of his writings on the sport, Parkinson recalls his own all-time heroes like Boycott, Trueman, Sobers and Benaud. He also discusses more recent luminaries such as Allan Border, David Gower and Darren Gough, to name but a few.
His professionalism never stops him from offering a highly personal viewpoint on most aspects of the modern game - not least on the question of why England has been so consistently bad at it.
Because Michael Parkinson is first and foremost a cricket fan, he writes with all the impartiality of a particularly fervent Yorkshireman, and it is just this abiding passion that makes this the perfect book for cricket lovers everywhere. It also bears out once again what the coaches told Mr Parkinson senior all those years ago: that as a cricketer at least, Michael makes an exceptional writer.
