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Caught Yapping: A History of Cricket in 100 Quotes
‘I do not want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there; one is trying to play cricket; and the other is not.’
‘There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?’
‘Thank you for making my tournament a success.’
‘Girls don’t play cricket.’
Bodyline, World Series Cricket and IPL—all seminal events in the game's history and succinctly captured in the quotes above by Bill Woodfull, Kerry Packer and Lalit Modi, respectively. And a casual comment made by a policeman to Rachael Heyhoe, which spurred her on to become a cricketer and eventually organize the World Cup, two years before the men’s!
Caught Yapping takes a never-trodden before route to narrate the history of cricket, using the medium of quotes to do the talking.
Why quotes?
Cricket has inspired considerable literature and continues to do so. Then there are words the people of cricket have spoken on the field, in press conferences, in commentary boxes and elsewhere. These are tales that scorecards do not tell, stories of heroes and villains, rises and falls, temptations and resistance, inclusions and exclusions. This book chronicles the history of cricket, and history means little without the people. And what better way to tell the story of the people than in their own words?
‘There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?’
‘Thank you for making my tournament a success.’
‘Girls don’t play cricket.’
Bodyline, World Series Cricket and IPL—all seminal events in the game's history and succinctly captured in the quotes above by Bill Woodfull, Kerry Packer and Lalit Modi, respectively. And a casual comment made by a policeman to Rachael Heyhoe, which spurred her on to become a cricketer and eventually organize the World Cup, two years before the men’s!
Caught Yapping takes a never-trodden before route to narrate the history of cricket, using the medium of quotes to do the talking.
Why quotes?
Cricket has inspired considerable literature and continues to do so. Then there are words the people of cricket have spoken on the field, in press conferences, in commentary boxes and elsewhere. These are tales that scorecards do not tell, stories of heroes and villains, rises and falls, temptations and resistance, inclusions and exclusions. This book chronicles the history of cricket, and history means little without the people. And what better way to tell the story of the people than in their own words?
- GenresSports
496 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2025
I purchased this on a whim, I am not a cricket fan, in fact I am a big zero in all sports (& also at knowing about them), but I find quotes interesting. While this book was in transit, I was wondering how small will this book be... 100 quotes can come in 20 pages, right?
This is a sizeable book, an anecdotal history loaded with stories, arranged into chapters, headed by a quote each. Every "quote" is not something known or popular, but yes, someone/ some magazine did say/write it. Some are funny, some are ironic, some are everyday. But the chapters are much more than the quotes.
The chapters describe either a development, a period, an event or an incident each. These are informative, interesting & bite-sized. The writing is simple, engaging & sensitive. The author calls out racism, sexism, classism smoothly & in the flow of the story, without dwelling on these. The book obviously quotes sources, & also mentions where the sources might be vague or contradictory.
If it were simply a "book of quotes", one could turn to any page & read. But this book is better read from the start, esp. the Part 1.
This is a sizeable book, an anecdotal history loaded with stories, arranged into chapters, headed by a quote each. Every "quote" is not something known or popular, but yes, someone/ some magazine did say/write it. Some are funny, some are ironic, some are everyday. But the chapters are much more than the quotes.
The chapters describe either a development, a period, an event or an incident each. These are informative, interesting & bite-sized. The writing is simple, engaging & sensitive. The author calls out racism, sexism, classism smoothly & in the flow of the story, without dwelling on these. The book obviously quotes sources, & also mentions where the sources might be vague or contradictory.
If it were simply a "book of quotes", one could turn to any page & read. But this book is better read from the start, esp. the Part 1.
August 9, 2025
A book of 500 pages, with 456 pages of main content, somehow doesn’t feel nearly that long. The 100 stories—each averaging 4–5 pages—are arranged sequentially and chronologically, making for an excellent and enriching read.
It’s always easier to imagine what could be added to make such a book a colossal 1,000+ page tome—difficult to hold and daunting to begin—but its greatest strength lies in the concise form of its stories. That brevity keeps it highly readable and engaging. I often found myself waiting for evenings to come home from work, planning to read four to five stories… and then reading far more than I intended.
For future generations, this could easily be the first book to start with when venturing into cricket literature.
The book covers Test cricket, ODIs, and T20s, across both men’s and women’s cricket. It addresses apartheid, racism, conflicts, victories, losses, and the turning points in cricket’s evolution. Truly, it has it all.
One of the things I admire most is that the author has not shied away from taking a stand. He calls a spade a spade—whether exposing the duplicity of the ICC with South Africa, highlighting English cricket’s privileges and self-appointed custodianship, or critiquing the media’s double standards: West Indians condemned for bouncers decades after Bodyline, reverse swing branded “cheating” when done by Pakistan, and so on. This is not romanticised cricket history designed to please everyone—it is history told with its merits and its blemishes.
My favourite chapters include:
45 – Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and her extraordinary skills and drive to host the Women’s World Cup
47 – Class differentiation in English cricket
54 – West Indies vs. Australia Test series of 1980
58 – The D’Oliveira saga
63 – The beginning of the West Indies’ fast-bowling assault
70 – A brilliant, concise history of apartheid and cricket in South Africa
74 – The drawn Test match between Australia and India
80 – The emergence of the BCCI
82 – The founding of Cricinfo
87 – The Zimbabwe cricket crisis—informative and intriguing
94 – The history of ball tampering
This is cricket history written with honesty, precision, and passion. For me, it’s not just a book—it’s a journey through the soul of the game.
P.S.: English proofread and modified by ChatGPT-3.5
It’s always easier to imagine what could be added to make such a book a colossal 1,000+ page tome—difficult to hold and daunting to begin—but its greatest strength lies in the concise form of its stories. That brevity keeps it highly readable and engaging. I often found myself waiting for evenings to come home from work, planning to read four to five stories… and then reading far more than I intended.
For future generations, this could easily be the first book to start with when venturing into cricket literature.
The book covers Test cricket, ODIs, and T20s, across both men’s and women’s cricket. It addresses apartheid, racism, conflicts, victories, losses, and the turning points in cricket’s evolution. Truly, it has it all.
One of the things I admire most is that the author has not shied away from taking a stand. He calls a spade a spade—whether exposing the duplicity of the ICC with South Africa, highlighting English cricket’s privileges and self-appointed custodianship, or critiquing the media’s double standards: West Indians condemned for bouncers decades after Bodyline, reverse swing branded “cheating” when done by Pakistan, and so on. This is not romanticised cricket history designed to please everyone—it is history told with its merits and its blemishes.
My favourite chapters include:
45 – Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and her extraordinary skills and drive to host the Women’s World Cup
47 – Class differentiation in English cricket
54 – West Indies vs. Australia Test series of 1980
58 – The D’Oliveira saga
63 – The beginning of the West Indies’ fast-bowling assault
70 – A brilliant, concise history of apartheid and cricket in South Africa
74 – The drawn Test match between Australia and India
80 – The emergence of the BCCI
82 – The founding of Cricinfo
87 – The Zimbabwe cricket crisis—informative and intriguing
94 – The history of ball tampering
This is cricket history written with honesty, precision, and passion. For me, it’s not just a book—it’s a journey through the soul of the game.
P.S.: English proofread and modified by ChatGPT-3.5
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews