Cricket Ball

by Gary Cox

No object encapsulates the subtle, mysterious richness of cricket as much as its most famous character, the cricket the swinging, bouncing, spinning heart of the glorious game.

Gary Cox tells us the life story of the ball in its many new ball, old ball, live ball, dead ball, no-ball, lost ball, swing ball and dot ball. He untangles the complexities of spin bowling (with a little help from Shane Warne), the tricks and cheats involved in ball tampering (including a look at the 2018 Australian scandal) and explores the multi-coloured future of a rapidly changing game.

A kaleidoscopic look at the ball through the lenses of everything from philosophy and science to history, politics and biography and the myriad facts and figures of the vast cricket universe, Cox brings you a brimming biography of this legendary leathern orb and the heroes, fools and villains it has created along the way.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

312 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2018

About the author

Gary Cox is a British philosopher and biographer and the author of several books on Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism, general philosophy, ethics and philosophy of sport.

Reviews

[Peter Griffin]

Ok. It certainly helps to have some great fondness and knowledge of the game of cricket. In that light, this is simply a joy to read. A love affair of the leather orb. Homage to the mindfulness and beauty of the game. I am now forced to buy for myself a Duke's Special County A ball.

[L]

Although I am not much of a sports fan, I found Cricket Ball well written and fun. This book is about cricket, of course, but focuses on the ball as an organizing theme. It ranges from philosophy of the ball as an object to bowling and batting technique to rules to famous players and memorable matches. Everything is covered in some way, although not always in depth.

The only downside is that a few diagrams would have been helpful - I was a bit lost reading the spin bowling passage. A trip to YouTube will help.

I knew nothing about Cricket, and now I understand just a bit.

[Ian Parke]

An enjoyable read. The title is misleading as the author takes the reader through many interesting facets about cricket.

The book does go on a bit but overall a worthy purchase