Cricket Explained: From Grubbers to Googlies—A Beginner's Guide to the Great English Pastime

by Rob Eastaway

Cricket Explained offers the sports enthusiast a user-friendly introduction to baseball's British cousin, a game that shares with America's national pastime the common ancestor "rounders."This is the definitive beginner's guide to the game of cricket, written by Robert Eastaway, a world authority on the sport, and co-inventor of the Coopers & Lybrand World Cricket Ratings System. Cricket Explained takes the reader from the game's fundamental --basic rules, 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 bowler from a batsman, 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-- Making sense of the action on the field-- Batsmen and the batting order-- Fielders and fielding positions-- Fielding and batting tactics-- Scoring and statistics-- Bowling strategy-- How many players are required-- How runs are scored, outs are made, and a game is won-- Umpires and the rules-- Bowlers and their individual styles-- Different types of cricket played throughout the world

Genres: Sports

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 19, 2016

About the author

Robert 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.

Reviews

[Caroline]

Okay, now I can get back to Shehan Karunatilaka’s Chinaman. I couldn’t understand one word of it in six, so I had to take a break to learn what a sentence like: ‘It may be possible to roll over the arm without being no-balled and hit a point on pitch.’ means.

Cricket Explained was perfect for the job. It covers all the basics of bowling, batting, fielding, and scoring. Eastaway explained a little basic strategy, and the different types of games (fixed number of innings, fixed number of overs, one-day, test, first-class, club, etc. ) The humor helped me get through it, but I can see that it might annoy someone else.

I augmented the book with some youtube videos and two hours spent watching a friendly game last Saturday morning, played atop a soccer (football) field not far away.

The only sport I enjoy watching is baseball , but I could see throwing it over for cricket. It’s more complex, but it shares the slow, relaxing atmosphere with baseball, along with the chance of enjoying a proper tea and an afternoon of chit chat with a friend while the game inches along.

[Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the books I've found about the sport of cricket are very British-centrist in nature. I know they claim invention and ownership of the game, but it's hugely popular in other parts of the world. This book makes scant mention of that, though perhaps since it was England's colonization of the world that spread cricket to all corners of the globe the author feels justified in skipping other locales.

This was a fun and informative read, though a bit dated. It was published in 1992 and although one of the hallmarks of cricket is how little it has changed over the centuries, there are quite a few omissions in this book. And, as I said, it is truly written for a British audience and often can leave an American lost. I think I've learned enough about the sport by now that I could author a Cricket for Americans book - and perhaps I should!

There are some cute illustrations throughout and the author's style is very lighthearted and whimsical...sometimes corny. But I didn't object to this and found the content worth the groan. Probably the best part of this book is the extensive glossary at the end - some 600 entries, including obscure cricket phrases that perhaps have only been uttered once by a commentator in 1952. But one of the appeals of the sport is the unique terminology and language used, most of which is heard in no other context. I'm proud of the fact that I now know what "He edged that between the second slip and gully for a boundary" actually means.

There might be other, more recent books to help you learn about cricket, but this was certainly worth reading.

[Patricia L Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gateway that led to my complete absorption in cricket. I will cherish it forever.

[Harry Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for a beginner to understand cricket. Love the illustrations!

[CawfeeDrinker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the mystery of what is Cricket is slowly becoming clearer for me after reading this book. The writing style is humorous and light-hearted. The illustrations are fun, too.

[Theda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay - have a basic understanding of cricket now.

Excessive use of "humor". I think it would have been clearer without it.