It's Not Cricket

Simon Rae

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571298457
• Year: 2012

An eye-opening survey of cricket, from the crowd violence and blatant match-rigging of the eighteenth century, down to the twentieth century's glaring abuses of the spirit of the game.

Written in the same lively style that won such praise for his W.G. Grace: A Life, Simon Rae's history of cheating will appeal to the cricket fan and general reader alike. Ranging from Thomas White, who notoriously arrived at the crease with a bat the size of the wicket, on through the Bodyline controversy and throwing, sledging, umpire baiting, and the recent disgrace of Hansie Cronje, It's Not Cricket makes us ask whether cricket really ever was the yardstick of all that is true, honest, pure and of good repute.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Author’s Note
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1: Walk; Don’t Walk
• CHAPTER 2: The Moral High Ground
• CHAPTER 3: Riotous Assemblies
• CHAPTER 4: Rules of Engagement
• CHAPTER 5: Money
• CHAPTER 6: ‘Flesh Will Blacken’
• CHAPTER 7: The Scourge of Throwing
• CHAPTER 8: Bodyline
• CHAPTER 9: Trial by Fire
• CHAPTER 10: Sledging: The Verbal Battle
• CHAPTER 11: Umpires
• CHAPTER 12: Ball Tampering
• CHAPTER 13: Turf Wars, Time Bandits and Space Invaders
• CHAPTER 14: Money Again: Packer and After
• CHAPTER 15: The Root of Evil
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plates
• About the Author
• Copyright