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Cricket Explained
Discover cricket in this updated edition of Cricket Explained: your guide to understanding one of the world's most strategic and eccentric sports.
This is the definitive beginner's guide to the game of cricket, written by Rob Eastaway, a world authority on the sport. This updated version of Cricket Explained takes the reader from the game's fundamentals—basic laws, terminology, equipment—to the finer points of strategy, individual playing styles, and cricket lore.
The book includes a combined glossary/index for easy reference and is illustrated throughout with the lighthearted drawings of British cartoonist Mark Stevens. So even if you don't know "short leg" from "silly mid off", or a leg break from a googly, you'll come away from Cricket Explained with an understanding for this truly international sport which, like baseball, is loved both for its elegant simplicity and its vexing complexity.
Among the topics covered in Cricket Explained's concise, user-friendly entries
-Cricket's history
-Twenty20 and other forms of cricket
-Making sense of the action on the field
-Batters and the batting order
-Bowlers and their individual styles
-Fielders and fielding positions
-Tactics
-Scoring and statistics
-How, like chess, a game can be won or sometimes drawn
This is the definitive beginner's guide to the game of cricket, written by Rob Eastaway, a world authority on the sport. This updated version of Cricket Explained takes the reader from the game's fundamentals—basic laws, terminology, equipment—to the finer points of strategy, individual playing styles, and cricket lore.
The book includes a combined glossary/index for easy reference and is illustrated throughout with the lighthearted drawings of British cartoonist Mark Stevens. So even if you don't know "short leg" from "silly mid off", or a leg break from a googly, you'll come away from Cricket Explained with an understanding for this truly international sport which, like baseball, is loved both for its elegant simplicity and its vexing complexity.
Among the topics covered in Cricket Explained's concise, user-friendly entries
-Cricket's history
-Twenty20 and other forms of cricket
-Making sense of the action on the field
-Batters and the batting order
-Bowlers and their individual styles
-Fielders and fielding positions
-Tactics
-Scoring and statistics
-How, like chess, a game can be won or sometimes drawn
144 pages, Paperback
Published April 7, 2026
About the author
Rob Eastaway
48 books32 followersRobert Eastaway is an author who is active in the popularisation of mathematics. He is a former pupil of The King's School, Chester, England and has a degree in Engineering and Management Science from the University of Cambridge. He was President of the UK Mathematical Association for 2007/2008. Eastaway is a keen cricket player and was one of the originators of the International Rankings of Cricketers. He is also a former puzzle-writer for the New Scientist magazine and he has been involved in live mathematics shows on Virgin Radio (now Absolute Radio). He is the Director of Maths Inspiration, a national programme of maths lectures for teenagers which involves some of the UK’s leading maths speakers such as Simon Singh and Colin Wright.
Robert Eastaway's titles appear under the name "Rob Eastaway" in the UK and some other countries.
Robert Eastaway's titles appear under the name "Rob Eastaway" in the UK and some other countries.
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is an updated reissued version of a book first released about 20 or so years ago. It's aimed at the beginner and explains the fundamentals in an easy to understand succinct way, adding cartoon illustrations to keep it light and prevent it going dry. It's also very funny in places...
Now, being as I am a qualified scorer and life member of my local club, I am hardly the target audience for this book but I did find it informative and I did learn a few things along the way. I am a bit miffed that the author doesn't include nurdling in either the text or the glossary at the end as it is my favourite word in the cricket vocabulary Although, that said, it's hardly surprising as nurdling itself is a bit of a dying art in the current regime of "see ball hit ball".
Anyway... that's by the by...
If you have any interest at all in the wonderful game that is cricket and haven't a clue where to start to understand the basics (outside of the "see ball hit ball" thing) then this book is an excellent place to start.
Now, being as I am a qualified scorer and life member of my local club, I am hardly the target audience for this book but I did find it informative and I did learn a few things along the way. I am a bit miffed that the author doesn't include nurdling in either the text or the glossary at the end as it is my favourite word in the cricket vocabulary Although, that said, it's hardly surprising as nurdling itself is a bit of a dying art in the current regime of "see ball hit ball".
Anyway... that's by the by...
If you have any interest at all in the wonderful game that is cricket and haven't a clue where to start to understand the basics (outside of the "see ball hit ball" thing) then this book is an excellent place to start.
Displaying 1 of 1 review