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Herding Cats: The Art of Amateur Cricket Captaincy
In 1985 Mike Brearley published The Art of Captaincy , revealing how he steered Middlesex and England to victory with his team of first-class cricketers. He got the absolute best out of his players, inspiring Ian Botham to new heights against the Australians in 1981. Few cricketers have had a greater impact on the amateur game than these two.
Every captain would love Brearley's degree in people, as well as a hardhitting all-rounder like Botham. But theirs was a barely recognisable game from the one we play on often dishevelled grounds up and down the country with ragtag teams of ageing, deluded or hungover friends and acquaintances. Now, Charlie Campbell offers us a New Testament to Brearley's Old Testament, as he guides us through the realities of captaining an amateur team.
Herding Cats picks its way through the minefield of an amateur's from the excitement and hope of pre-season nets, to the desperate scramble to gather 11 players for a frosty game on a far-flung, desolate pitch; from decoding the casual phrase 'I bat a bit', to setting a field of players who can't catch or throw; from handling the most delicate egos, to dealing with a case of the yips; from frequent moments of despair, to sudden and joyful glimpses of unexpected glory.
For all those of us who recognise ourselves, our teammates, our friends and partners in the shambling joy of amateur cricket more than in the top-class international game, Campbell lights a path through a weekend world of play at the beating heart of the world's second most popular sport.
Every captain would love Brearley's degree in people, as well as a hardhitting all-rounder like Botham. But theirs was a barely recognisable game from the one we play on often dishevelled grounds up and down the country with ragtag teams of ageing, deluded or hungover friends and acquaintances. Now, Charlie Campbell offers us a New Testament to Brearley's Old Testament, as he guides us through the realities of captaining an amateur team.
Herding Cats picks its way through the minefield of an amateur's from the excitement and hope of pre-season nets, to the desperate scramble to gather 11 players for a frosty game on a far-flung, desolate pitch; from decoding the casual phrase 'I bat a bit', to setting a field of players who can't catch or throw; from handling the most delicate egos, to dealing with a case of the yips; from frequent moments of despair, to sudden and joyful glimpses of unexpected glory.
For all those of us who recognise ourselves, our teammates, our friends and partners in the shambling joy of amateur cricket more than in the top-class international game, Campbell lights a path through a weekend world of play at the beating heart of the world's second most popular sport.
- GenresSports
256 pages, Paperback
Published July 10, 2018
11 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Campbell
4 books3 followersCharlie Campbell is an author from Brighton, UK, who is somewhat confused how he wound up as a professional artist when he attended university to study theoretical physics.
His works now include multiple board games, luxury board game upgrade pieces and animated musical trailers, among other things.
His works now include multiple board games, luxury board game upgrade pieces and animated musical trailers, among other things.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 6, 2022
I have to say that I was really looking forward to this book. I am the captain of a pub cricket team that I started with a group of mates about ten years ago. After battling through seven years in Div 10/11 of the Mid Essex Cricket League, I was rmore than ready for a little guidance.
Sadly, I found this book to be written in a particularly smug fashion with the author recounting his side's tours of India and Sri Lanka, bowling against Mark Ramprakash and playing at grounds such as Eton, training in the nets at Lord's. You get the picture. Basically a world away from what i and my mates are used to, or ever will experience.
The team mates of the author are barely sketched at all. It is as if we are supposed to know who Nick, Tony, Joe, Sam etc are already. It really feels as if the author wrote it for a select few and not your average cricketing captain fool such as myself.
So disappointed. And have to say, the narration on the audio book certainly didn't help.
Out!
Sadly, I found this book to be written in a particularly smug fashion with the author recounting his side's tours of India and Sri Lanka, bowling against Mark Ramprakash and playing at grounds such as Eton, training in the nets at Lord's. You get the picture. Basically a world away from what i and my mates are used to, or ever will experience.
The team mates of the author are barely sketched at all. It is as if we are supposed to know who Nick, Tony, Joe, Sam etc are already. It really feels as if the author wrote it for a select few and not your average cricketing captain fool such as myself.
So disappointed. And have to say, the narration on the audio book certainly didn't help.
Out!
July 18, 2017
From the jolly title, colourful cover and quotes gushing over the funniness of the book, along with the word 'cricket' in the subtitle, it was pretty clear what I could expect from this book. Or so I thought.
You would doubtless expect this to be in the vein of Marcus Berkmann or Harry Thompson, quaint stories of inept be-anoraked cricketing Davids and their (extremely rare) victories over dwarfen Goliaths in the eccentric realm of England's village cricket. There is the barest smidgen of this material, but Charlie Campbell, it seems, has set out to genuinely write a guide to cricket captaincy at the shallowest end of the pool.
Fair enough, that isn't a subject beneath a book. But, before you set out to write a book on such a niche subject, it's probably best to make sure that you really have enough material for 200+ pages. Campbell does not appear to. The first 40 pages or so are pretty solid material (though half of that is personal anecdote) but immediately having completed this passage of the book, I think only demented readers will fail to notice the repetition.
The drinking game - every time Charlie talks about
* Openers scoring too slowly
* The middle order playing rash shots because the openers score too slowly
* Bad bowlers getting wickets because good bats will go after them
* Wanting to give everyone a go in a season
Not for the faint of liver.
There are some anecdotes. Like that time he mentions a pair of fielders who took ecstasy in the outfield to keep themselves alert. Why, you can imagine the shenanigans. Which is convenient, because this incident (nor any other) isn't elaborated on beyond a single sentence.
There's also some of an unfortunately common trait in these books - the humblebrags. You know what I mean, all the moaning about how hopeless their team is and, oh no, now we have a fixture with a team with three ex-test players in it scheduled, but, wouldn't you know, we just happened to get lucky and cream them. These stories are bearable when there's a few funny stories about the match, but Campbell doesn't seem a natural storyteller. All of his recounts end up being pretty dry match reports, but at least they're brief.
Even though I've given it one star, this isn't a book without merit. If you simply can't get enough village cricketing stories and are prepared to sift for them, there's a bit of good material particularly in the first half, or if you're tossing up whether you want to go for an offer of vice-captaincy in your club this could be a worthwhile reality check.
You would doubtless expect this to be in the vein of Marcus Berkmann or Harry Thompson, quaint stories of inept be-anoraked cricketing Davids and their (extremely rare) victories over dwarfen Goliaths in the eccentric realm of England's village cricket. There is the barest smidgen of this material, but Charlie Campbell, it seems, has set out to genuinely write a guide to cricket captaincy at the shallowest end of the pool.
Fair enough, that isn't a subject beneath a book. But, before you set out to write a book on such a niche subject, it's probably best to make sure that you really have enough material for 200+ pages. Campbell does not appear to. The first 40 pages or so are pretty solid material (though half of that is personal anecdote) but immediately having completed this passage of the book, I think only demented readers will fail to notice the repetition.
The drinking game - every time Charlie talks about
* Openers scoring too slowly
* The middle order playing rash shots because the openers score too slowly
* Bad bowlers getting wickets because good bats will go after them
* Wanting to give everyone a go in a season
Not for the faint of liver.
There are some anecdotes. Like that time he mentions a pair of fielders who took ecstasy in the outfield to keep themselves alert. Why, you can imagine the shenanigans. Which is convenient, because this incident (nor any other) isn't elaborated on beyond a single sentence.
There's also some of an unfortunately common trait in these books - the humblebrags. You know what I mean, all the moaning about how hopeless their team is and, oh no, now we have a fixture with a team with three ex-test players in it scheduled, but, wouldn't you know, we just happened to get lucky and cream them. These stories are bearable when there's a few funny stories about the match, but Campbell doesn't seem a natural storyteller. All of his recounts end up being pretty dry match reports, but at least they're brief.
Even though I've given it one star, this isn't a book without merit. If you simply can't get enough village cricketing stories and are prepared to sift for them, there's a bit of good material particularly in the first half, or if you're tossing up whether you want to go for an offer of vice-captaincy in your club this could be a worthwhile reality check.
June 21, 2020
I was recommended this book by another book: funny how that happens. It was billed as a short, entertaining read about cricket captaincy which has words of great wisdom which can be applied in the world of professional leadership as well.
First things first, the book doesn't bill itself that way at all. However, if you have a cricket fanatic who wants to learn about leadership, this book is a remarkably well-written way of teaching him or her about it. The writer is an author, who writes for a living, and captains a team called "Authors XI", a team with a remarkably storied history. He hints at having played Saturday Cricket (League Cricket), but this is not a book about that: those matches are fairly professional. This is a book about Sunday Cricket, when your side may or may not turn up. It deals with many many inanities of the position he finds himself in on most Sundays. He talks about getting players onto the pitch, making sure the team functions well, the issues plaguing an amateur cricket captain (as compared to a pro), and more importantly, the importance of making sure no resentment builds up.
The end result seems to be somewhere between the Pirates' Code and actual professional cricket: the captain isn't elected, but is so dependent on his players he has to behave like an elected leaders due for re-election soon. At the same time, he has to take decisions about handling players both on and off the field, something professional cricketers do not have to think about.
It makes for a remarkable analogy to flat-hierarchy leadership. A simple example: you're at school working on a project for which you've been assigned a team. Unfortunately, if one of the team isn't working on the project you can't do jack. You cannot complain, you cannot get him removed. You have to get the work done with the people you have. A lot of what Campbell talks about here can be reworked with minimal issues into being used by a person in such a position.
I'm going to give it a 4/5. I take a point off because the book gets a little tedious: it's evident that the author wrote a shorter book but was asked to pad the pages a bit. At the same time, if you're a cricket fanatic (surprise surprise, I'm not!) you don't care about more pages anyway. Depends on how your bread is buttered.
First things first, the book doesn't bill itself that way at all. However, if you have a cricket fanatic who wants to learn about leadership, this book is a remarkably well-written way of teaching him or her about it. The writer is an author, who writes for a living, and captains a team called "Authors XI", a team with a remarkably storied history. He hints at having played Saturday Cricket (League Cricket), but this is not a book about that: those matches are fairly professional. This is a book about Sunday Cricket, when your side may or may not turn up. It deals with many many inanities of the position he finds himself in on most Sundays. He talks about getting players onto the pitch, making sure the team functions well, the issues plaguing an amateur cricket captain (as compared to a pro), and more importantly, the importance of making sure no resentment builds up.
The end result seems to be somewhere between the Pirates' Code and actual professional cricket: the captain isn't elected, but is so dependent on his players he has to behave like an elected leaders due for re-election soon. At the same time, he has to take decisions about handling players both on and off the field, something professional cricketers do not have to think about.
It makes for a remarkable analogy to flat-hierarchy leadership. A simple example: you're at school working on a project for which you've been assigned a team. Unfortunately, if one of the team isn't working on the project you can't do jack. You cannot complain, you cannot get him removed. You have to get the work done with the people you have. A lot of what Campbell talks about here can be reworked with minimal issues into being used by a person in such a position.
I'm going to give it a 4/5. I take a point off because the book gets a little tedious: it's evident that the author wrote a shorter book but was asked to pad the pages a bit. At the same time, if you're a cricket fanatic (surprise surprise, I'm not!) you don't care about more pages anyway. Depends on how your bread is buttered.
December 7, 2017
A quick, easy and very enjoyable read – anyone who has ever played cricket at any level will find much to recognise and relish.
December 21, 2017
Excellent. Very witty account of the trials of captaining a team of amateurs, lessons are relevant for leaders outside of cricket too!
February 21, 2022
A tremendously entertaining insight into the life of a Sunday cricket captain. Very relatable and incredibly funny throughout
February 23, 2021
Fine for what it is, nothing too original
April 9, 2017
I started to read this thinking that it would be another tale of light cricket whimsy (and there is a bit of that) but this is an actual attempt to do an art of captaincy for the Sunday cricketer...and it succeeds, quite brilliantly. There is something in the frustration of life as a club cricket captain that just can't be faked and its description here really hits the mark. From the inability of grown men to have £10 in their pocket, to dealing with the hopelessly irresponsible and selfish are beautifully drawn out together with the knowledge that as captain it takes 11 to get a team, you want to win but only 5 in the team are capable. It's all a huge balancing act. I've held down a well paid , responsible job for many years but I reckon I have to utilise my skills x 10 to run a cricket team. For all captains everywhere you should read this book, it will strike home much better that Brealey's famous book. My only criticism is that Campbell should try running a team where you have to sort the ground and groundsmen out too and do the fundraising. Once he has he can add another 6 chapters of woe. Great read all the same!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews