28 Days' Data: England's Troubled Relationship with One Day Cricket

by Peter Miller

We will have to look at the data. As this quote hit the airwaves it was said to sum up England's backward and stuttering performance at the 2015 World Cup. It didn't matter that Peter Moores, the coach at the time, had been misheard - he said he would look at it later. The narrative of a team held back by too much information had taken hold. But this was not the first time England had struggled in cricket's premier event. England's history with one-day cricket is a troubled one. Despite inventing the limited-overs game more than 50 years ago they have never won the World Cup. 28 Days’ Data tells the story of England at every World Cup since 1992, speaking with those that were there and the journalists that covered their efforts to pick through the remains. With interviews from England captains, players and coaches, this is the definitive take on England's failed attempts to be world beaters in the shortest forms of the game - and whether things might finally be about to change.

243 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2016

Reviews

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why did I pick up this book ? "Vasudhaiv kutumbakam" ? :) Maybe I was nostalgic and wanted to relive my childhood reading "Cricket Samrat" in the pre-internet 90s. And Coleho said in Alchemist the universe conspires...
The book tries to analyse the reason behind the disastrous performances of England in 6 one-day world cups from 1996-2015. But, for d most part it is a commentary on the matches played by England (hence Cricket Samrat). Also, found it strange that "tiredness" was offered as a reason for the first 5 debacles and then for 2015, it was the exact opposite - "rest". But, some of the parts which explained selection and the workings of the ECB, the invention of Twenty20 were quite interesting.
The book is fast-paced and a comfort read for a cricket fan.

[Niall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but the writing feels quite amateurish and a lot is quotes from third party sources.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tales about the ODI and T20 versions of England's cricket program. As someone who only followed the sport the last two years, was a little hard to digest with all the names and events so would be more useful read for those very familiar with the sport.