Cricket Kings

by William McInnes

Step into the lives of a team of regular middle-aged men who meet each week to play cricket in their local park. With these characters William will make us laugh and cry. And never again will we think that someone is just a regular bloke - everyone can be a king or a queen in their own suburb.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Darryl William McInnes (born 10 September 1963) is one of Australia’s most popular stage and screen actors.

His leading roles in Sea Change and Blue Heelers have made him a household name. The mini-series Shark Net and My Brother Jack earned him widespread critical acclaim. He has been nominated for numerous stage and screen awards, and has won a Variety Club Drama Award in 1997 and two Logie awards for Most Outstanding Actor in 2000 and 2004.

William grew up in Queensland and has travelled extensively throughout Australia. He now lives in Melbourne with his two children. He was married to the late film maker Sarah Watt.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cricket Kings by William McInnes is a gentle, satirical, moving tale about one day in the life of Chris Anderson, industrial lawyer, husband, father, son and captain of the Yarraville fourth's cricket team. It's about the players, about the community, about the past and the future, about family and strangers, about a fair go and having a go, about the game and about the meaning of life.

Quite earthy at times, quintessentially Australian, I found it both amusing, heart-warming and it stayed with me after I'd turned the last page.

[Mark Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected. Took a while to get going but the conclusion was satisfying. Thought it was going to be a wry book about social cricket but it had a lot more to say about life in Australia. Fairly accurate description of Australia as a good but not great country. Read it in day so enjoyable enough.

[Toni Umar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read more of William’s books for some time so it was a delight to find this treasure in an op shop recently. For the first few chapters I wasn’t sure about my enjoyment levels, some paragraphs really good and then I was lost in characters and I was already forming a three star rating. But how wrong I was, as the cricket match commenced and I learnt so much more about each team player I could not put the book down. The author has quite an amazing way of describing what has happened to so many of us and how our thoughts often get in the way of real feelings and future attitudes. So many beautiful mini stories are shared with out judgement. The reader can make their own judgement. The main character Chris, also the captain of the cricket team has incredible leadership skills, and many faults too. They are all traits we see in ourselves or those close to us, so we admire him the more for it. I was truly sad when the book finished, and find my self thinking of the characters often. I feel the story would make a fabulous series, why don’t novels like this get picked for filming rights, instead of some of the silly ones that are chosen. Thank you William McInnes, I hope to track down some more of your treasures and read them all.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though very sentimental at times, this exploration of life based around a fourth-grade cricket match on a beat-up suburban oval in Melbourne is a great read. Lawyer and clumsy parent Chris Anderson, the captain of Yarraville West Fourths, rounds up a team eventually two short for the last match of the season and the circumstances, reflections and occasional epiphanies of several of the players, passers-by, spectators and the umpire during the game on the Saturday give them new perspectives on life. Moving and real - a great read.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow starter this. Perhaps a bit like a game of cricket? Big Chris captains a low tier cricket team. As usual participants have to be cajoled into playing and there are many pages spent on this.
The match begins. And The Visitors bat. Fielding gives us a chance to learn something more about the team members. And …. At some point (around Lunch) is when the best part of this book happens. I cried a little.
Gently funny from time to time, very Aussie, and sweet.
3.5 stars

[martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Australia

I enjoyed the book very much. Well written, funny and describes Aussie life to a "t". As a cricket can it's also a good reminder that Australian cricket is not just on tv or at the stadium.

[Jim Fidler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a delight. I loved the characterisation. McInnes created so many vivid images. Some wonderful humour mixed with a strong message. The chapter with Australian Prime Ministers, Footloose and Elvis as the bowlers was laugh out loud funny.

[Ralphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cricket fiction of quality and so real that you can smell the linseed oil and hear the thwack of ball on bat.
Anyone who has played club cricket will recognise and empathise with the many and varied characters that make up a cricket club.
Well played Will McInnes
😎👍🏏📚✅

[Andrew Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meandering from the on field into life on a summer afternoon.
Loved the local reference to Tandoori Palace in Footscray, iconic restaurant.

[Modigliana Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the format, with the majority of the book being told through character reflections over the course of a cricket match. Loved the references to West Footscray throughout. The book was very sentimental, and sentimental about ideas, that when pushed a little, don’t hold.

[Steve lovell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Australia has produced much to marvel at in its stand-in-awe-bow-down-to world class cricketers. In my lifetime alone there has been Steve Waugh – the man to go into the trenches with and who could forget that Sydney innings! Then there was the owner of the incredible ball of the century – what a pity Shane Warne was (is) such a plonker. And I remember one summer many moons ago - I was at some caravan park listening to cricket on the radio when Douggie Walters hit a six off the final ball to give himself a century in a session. Great cricketers all – and that’s just the Ws. This reader could watch every single ball of every test but these days mainly steels himself to reading about it in the Age afterwards, otherwise five days at a time would disappear into the ether. The hit and giggle forms of the sport have less attraction but also their moments. Yes I love cricket, and over the years have particularly enjoyed reading the great scribes of the game. Peter Roebuck was sorely missed this summer! Cricket as a game is seared on the soul of this nation. A willow wielder, rightly or wrongly, in the guise of Bradman, is often called the greatest of Australians, although he has his detractors, and we follow our chosen favourites through an intricacy of statistics unintelligible to the uninitiated.
There are those that achieve national prominence in the sport and those that become legends in their own ‘local lunchboxes’. Such a man is Chris Andersen, captain of the Yarraville West Fourths, playing in the lower ranks of one of Melbourne’s numerous suburban leagues. McInnes has had the neat idea of structuring his first novel around just one Saturday arvo game, and mostly the single innings of the opposing team for the day – a team who had done the dastardly and cheekily included a demon bowler from the upper grades in its attack! As the innings grinds on, for the fielding team is no match for its more accomplished foes, McInnes, in a series of vignettes, takes us into the worlds of the Yarraville lads. Through this we discover the whys and whereforths of their puzzling on-field demeanours.
McInnes is the Walters of writers. He possesses a knockabout style that matches the rhythms of a hot summer’s day and its accompanying somnambulant game. Like Walters he can hit sixes that raise belly laughs and illuminate moments of poignancy to bring tears to the eyes. As he takes the reader into the lives of these journeyman cricketers and uncovers their demons, he also asks the big questions of life – such as, “Whatever happened to Keith Lamb?’ For those ignorant of this great figure, he was lead singer of Countdown glitter group Hush – and this had me rushing to YouTube to watch them strut through ‘Bony Moronie’ one more time in their 1975 pomp. Hush’s two Chinese Australian guitarists were a talking point at the time. Those were the days…………..
As in his memoir based writing efforts, McInnes brings joy, if not quite the same amount of sixes, in this his first novel. The loud bombastic Andersen, a character with the proverbial heart of gold if somewhat rough around the edges, is a lovely creation, as is his farting sidekick of a wicketkeeper. Then there is his son, Lachie, trying to make sense of it all. You feel that there is a raw Australianness in McInnes’ best characters, and long may he present them to us.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cricket Kings, the first novel by William McInnes, is set in late summer in suburban Victoria. The Yarraville West Fourths, a team cobbled together by Chris Andersen, are playing their last game of the season against Trinity on the Cec Bull Memorial Oval. What happens immediately before, during and after the match, to the players, organizers and spectators, makes for plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as well as the occasional lump in the throat. McInnes does an excellent job of portraying these sportsmen and showing us their deeper thoughts and feelings. He touches on father-son relationships, immigration, war, love of music, reminiscence, teamwork and having a go. An altogether enjoyable novel.

[Rosanne Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My perfect book.
Laugh and cry out loud.
Love it.
And you don’t have to understand cricket to understand this book.

[Wilton314 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit slow in places but witty nevertheless. Tool me back to my couple of seasons playing sub districts cricket at a neighborhood park on Saturday afternoons through summer at Uni. William McInnes has an amazing way of writing that relates so well to real Aussie childhoods.

[LibraryKath · Rating 3 out of 5]

More warm and fuzzies from Will. I prefer his memoir writing, but he's done well with this one.

[Christine]

I'm not a cricket fan but I really enjoyed this book. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. Very Australian, very QLD.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good aussie book

[Carmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

what a great and funny read, very good laugh, all set in one day of a local cricket match.

[Susan]

enjoyable

[Linda Bentvelzen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book. I love the way it all comes together in the end.

[Athol-mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

love his laconic voice. really captures atmosphere

[Peter Metcalfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

very perceptive of the cricket life

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic actor, and now we find out he’s also a fantastic writer!! Author absolutely nails this wonderfully evocative tale of urban life. Just loved it.

[Tobias Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that is slightly more than just a fun book about mates playing cricket.

[Debi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some great life lessons, but too blokey for my taste.

[Charlie Steen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.1⭐️ Maybe there’s more to a suburban middle aged man than most people think…. Which all gets revealed during a game of cricket

[Tathia · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much to relate to - fun.