Who Wants to be a Batsman?

by Simon Hughes

Batsmen are the poster boys of cricket. They are the richly rewarded andrightly celebrated stars of the Sachin Tendulkar, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, A.B.de Villiers and Kevin Pietersen. This is a story about them. Their hopes and fears, their triumph and torment. It is a book about the real feelings that batsmen experience and probes into their minds to see how they deal with one of the most precarious jobs in sport, in which life and death are one ball apart.      Simon Hughes hero-worshipped the famous batsmen of his youth, and dreamt of scoring a hundred for England. His flawed attempts to make runs in a 15-year professional career are the prism through which he reflects on how some talented boys turn into great batsmen, and others lose their way. Now universally known as The Analyst, Hughes assesses what ingredients a batsman needs to succeed. He delves into sports psychology, showing that what goes on in the mind is the key to batting.      There is no right way or wrong way to bat. This book reflects the diverse range of batting personalities and styles. Hughes spends time with many of the legendary players - from Garfield Sobers to Kumar Sangakkara - revealing what made each of them so prolific, and the secrets behind Sir Donald Bradman's phenomenal output. He chronicles the way batting has evolved and answers the fundamental are batsmen born or made? Written in the same wry, sardonic style as the award-winning A Lot of Hard Yakka, it is the most insightful and entertaining book about batsmen ever published.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2015

About the author

Simon Peter Hughes is an English cricketer and journalist. He is the son of the actor Peter Hughes, and the brother of historian Bettany Hughes.


Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Jarvo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sporting cliches, you love them or you loathe them. One of cricket's most common is a batsman saying that he simply went out and played every ball on its merits (its a bit similar to football manager's saying that there team is going to take each game as it comes). As this book makes clear this is far, far harder than it ought to be. Cricket is a game where the actual action occupies a tiny fraction of the time involved: for all but the mentally strong there is way too much time to think, enabling you to slide easily between over and under confidence. And even though the laws and conditions etc seem weighted in favour of the batsman, the bowler has one crucial advantage - she can make many mistakes and still have a good game. For any batsman their next mistake may well be their last. This is a bright and breezy book, well suited to reading in airports and on planes. Hughes is renowned as an analyst of the game but his message is disarmingly simple. There are many ways of succeeding as a batsman but what all the good ones have in common is an ability to be in the moment at the crucial times when they are about to face the ball. (The approach here is semi-autobiographical, and is occasionally marred by an unfortunate sexist comment, but its great to find, in the closing section, that it is Hughes daughter who is the best batsman in the family).

[Akin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Hughes was a bowler - which, oddly enough, makes him an excellent *batting* analyst, given that they get to see what works and what doesn't , time and time again (the art of bowling is much more cerebral than most give it credit for being...)

This book is brief, breezy, entertaining and informed. First problem I had with it was that it was anchored around the author's (unsuccessful) attempts to shape himself as a batsman of sorts (to improve his chances of an England call up. Spoiler - it didn't happen). Nothing at all wrong with this, indeed it works quite well. But the understanding I had taken from the various blurbs and reviews of the book was that it would concentrate much more on the routines and received wisdom of successful batsmen.

(To be fair: there is an excellent section about Kumar Sangakkara towards the end of the book. And lots of other insights from them at the top of their game interspersed here and there. My reservation in this respect is probably much more one of expectations...)

Bigger issue with what felt like a forced blokey tone that occasionally emerged. Spoilt the unforced rhythm of the book, and occasionally undermined it altogether. Unnecessary; I wonder if it was an ill-judged editorial intervention?

Interested to see that Hughes didn't write more about the psychological loneliness of the batman - both Trescothick and Trott are mentioned but not closely examined. Conversely, he does discuss psychological strength in some detail, especially with Mark Ramprakash, terribly unfortunate not to have a longerEngland career. A contrast with Hick might have been quite interesting. Both suffered from self inflicted psychological wounds, but for different reasons; both suffered from a less than supportive England set up, but again for different reasons.

Again, and given the role of stats in cricket, this book made me wonder why a trans-Atlantic version of Sabernomics doesn't feature more prominently in cricketing analysis. Author does make an interesting point about centuries and their influence in winning a game - Bradman very much so, Lara and Tendulkar less. Also interesting thoughts on how technology is serving to balance the sport (somewhat) for bowlers, as batsmen benefit from nutrition, equipment and heavy bats (although no mention of the all round improvement in pitches and the effect of this in batting.)

All round an easy entertaining read. Don't think I'll be referring to it heavily in the future, but I didn't think the author necessarily had this in mind either.

[John Grinstead · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Analyst takes his analytical skills to a new level in providing an in-depth assessment of what it takes to be a great batsman. Fast reaction times, great hand-eye coordination, physical strength and bravery? All these and more, apparently. We learn about the mind games, attitudes and mental resilience required and those who have had it all to varying degrees, and those who, despite extraordinary skill, have struggled to make it at the highest level.

[Vijay Kumar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Light read with some decent anecdotes in book which I found in some place to be contradictory to the overall theme of the book. Trying to relate to his own experience, Simon Hughes has tried a little too hard with a mix of stereotyping , recency bias and at one place being factually incorrect only to fail at his endeavour.

[Jonny Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started really good and interesting and kept strong until the final third I'd say. Good balance between advice, stories and anecdotes of the authors career. The author has a decent sense of humour too and knows not to take it too seriously. As a bowler myself I can relate to much apart of this.

[Anjil Dhakal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

[Siddharth Raman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light read interspersed with typical British humour. Will probably appeal only to fans of cricket.

[Tom Ives · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting take

[Tom Ives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Analysis by the analyst

[Phil Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read until he falls in to the trap of talking about his daughter too much towards the end

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hughes was, of course, a bowler and his insights into batting and batsmen are not essential reading. Amusing in parts.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perceptive, humorous and personal, what a great book on cricket... excellent insights into the preparation and analysis that goes into crafting a top notch batsman

[Andrew Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howzatt! Excellent reading if you're a cricket nut, which I am.