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Sphere of Influence: Writings on Cricket and Its Discontents
'Does cricket make money in order to exist, or does it exist in order to make money?' In the last three years, cricket has changed more completely than in the preceding three decades, revolutionised by a racy new format, Twenty20, and a glamorous new competition, the Indian Premier League. How did India come to run world cricket? How did clubs owned by billionaires and Bollywood stars begin to shove international competition aside? How did money unite players and divide administrators, amid allegations of massive corruption? Gideon Haigh has followed cricket's biggest story since Kerry Packer's 'World Series' from the Sphere of Influence is the result. This insightful collection brings the struggle to save cricket's soul into sharp and disturbing focus.
388 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
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About the author
Gideon Haigh
101 books114 followersGideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport (especially cricket) and business. He was born in London, raised in Geelong, and now lives in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 19, 2024
Compilation of articles written for various publications at the start of IPL with many prognostications quite prescient.
July 20, 2019
"(Vishwanathan) Anand reminds us that greatness is not merely about success; it also concerns losing in such a way that incurs the least psychic damage."
Gideon Haigh is a respected journalist whose expertise includes business and cricket. However, as I was going through the initial chapters of the book -
If I get a chance to rename this book, it will be - I fucking hate BCCI, IPL and Lalit Modi.
The hypocrisy is such that Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting are patriots while Indian cricketers and Lalit Modi are nationalists. Moreover, Mr. Haigh has a problem with the Pakistani players not allowed to play IPL and missing the big buck whereas Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorists.
Nevertheless, rest of the book is quite insightful about thepowerlessness administration of International Cricket Council, spot fixing, betting, portraits of great cricketers and the opacity of running of IPL. The opacity of IPL in fact resulted in spot fixing of three Rajasthan Royals players and betting scandals of owners of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Eventually, these two franchises were banned for two years from IPL. Most of the articles are published in one magazine or newspaper or website between 2008 to 2011. Hence, reading those in 2019 might not click some things.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is -
"Every time Warne bowls he expects to take wickets.
Every time he bats he expects to make runs.
Every time he sees a woman he expects to get laid."
Gideon Haigh is a respected journalist whose expertise includes business and cricket. However, as I was going through the initial chapters of the book -
If I get a chance to rename this book, it will be - I fucking hate BCCI, IPL and Lalit Modi.
The hypocrisy is such that Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting are patriots while Indian cricketers and Lalit Modi are nationalists. Moreover, Mr. Haigh has a problem with the Pakistani players not allowed to play IPL and missing the big buck whereas Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorists.
Nevertheless, rest of the book is quite insightful about the
One of my favorite quotes from the book is -
"Every time Warne bowls he expects to take wickets.
Every time he bats he expects to make runs.
Every time he sees a woman he expects to get laid."
April 9, 2014
This book is exactly what it claims to be : writings, a collection of articles written by Mr. Haigh. All his articles are perspectives of a very well read man and most of them are opinionated pieces, interspersed with facts , news articles and quotes from writers on cricket.
I have to say that, the structure of the book is very interesting. You have articles divided into 5 parts; each part dealing with different topics (so to say) like BCCI,IPL,Australian Cricket etc etc. But, no topic taken up in this book is independent of the other and all these topics appear so very omnipresent in the book. Now, at one hand, it does give you a holistic view of all the happenings going on in the Cricketing world; but on the other, at times, it all appears too muddled and I did feel a disconnect at some points of time. That being said, it is a very good book, high on content and is certainly a prized possession for a cricket aficionado like me!
I have to say that, the structure of the book is very interesting. You have articles divided into 5 parts; each part dealing with different topics (so to say) like BCCI,IPL,Australian Cricket etc etc. But, no topic taken up in this book is independent of the other and all these topics appear so very omnipresent in the book. Now, at one hand, it does give you a holistic view of all the happenings going on in the Cricketing world; but on the other, at times, it all appears too muddled and I did feel a disconnect at some points of time. That being said, it is a very good book, high on content and is certainly a prized possession for a cricket aficionado like me!
January 15, 2026
This is a collections of articles taken from a period of significant change to world cricket. Years have past, yet he is book provides a fascinating perspective. Haigh writes beautifully, and grapples with the important issues that cricket is facing while capturing the essence of why so many people love the sport.
September 23, 2012
Starts well and has something to contribute to arguments about the direction cricket is going. Its nature; a collection of articles, tends to make it repetitive and in the end I became rather more irritated by the style than inclined to agree. Pop it in the 'glad I've read it' section.
December 19, 2011
A collection of Gideon Haigh's articles about cricket over the past three years. Loved the writing, as usual. Some of the Cricinfo articles I have read, but they're worth reading again.
October 1, 2015
Some of the best essays on Cricket for the last decade or so. Gideon Haigh, you are the CricMan.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews