Across six of the seven continents on which cricket is played, there are some remarkable cricket grounds. From a tidal strip of sand outside the Ship Inn at Elie, in Fife, to the monumental Melbourne Cricket Ground with its 100,000 capacity, this book features the extraordinary places and venues in which cricket is played. Many grounds have remarkably beautiful settings. There is the rugged Devonian charm of Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club set in the Valley of the Rocks, not far from the North Devon coast. Then there is the vividly-coloured, almost Lego-like structure of Dharamshala pavilion in Northern India. In contrast there are under-threat cricket pitches in North Yorkshire, such as Spout House, where Prince Harry played twice, scored 16, and then got bowled by a 12-year-old. Many of England’s greatest players have come from public schools, and there are some wonderful examples of their cricket grounds such as Sedbergh and Milton Abbey. Country houses such as Audley End and Blenheim Palace form the backdrop to many cricket pitches, or castles, such as Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, or Raby Castle in County Durham. Sri Lanka’s test ground, Galle, has a fort looming above it, while Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, has the unmistakeable Table Mountain as the backdrop. Some of the stunning imagery has a modern feel. Queenstown cricket ground has international jets taking off just yards from the playing action, while Singapore Cricket Club is an oasis of lush green set against a 21st century array of high-rise towers. Then there are cricket grounds in unusual places; Hawaii, Corfu, Berlin, Slovenia and St Moritz to name but a few.

Following the success of Remarkable Cricket Grounds, author Brian Levison focuses his attention on the amazing variety of grassroots cricket venues throughout the British Isles. In the original book he covered some of the largest stadia where cricket is played throughout the world. In Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds he concentrates on the smallest. The inventory of beautiful and atmospheric grounds includes those played by the seaside, at the edge of moorland, in front of grand country houses or on wind-blasted hillsides. Village cricket is played next to windmills, thatched cottages, trout streams, in the heart of Cotswold stone hamlets, and on many of the country's verdant village greens. There are some classic cricketing pubs included along with lavish teas, ancient pitch rollers, equally ancient club secretaries and a variety of warning signs for those wishing to park their car within slogging distance. Almost all of the venues are located in the kind of set-piece British landscape that will have the tourist boards begging for copies. It is a treasury of British life featuring clubs from: Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Essex, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Leicestershire, Wales and Scotland.

In C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James--the "black Plato," (as coined by the London Times)--shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony (by one of the founding fathers of African nationalism), part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, Beyond a Boundary raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics, and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later (Pantheon, 1983), this second American edition brings back into print this prophetic statement on race and sport in society.

From county grounds where Denis Compton hit a century to the smallest village field Britain’s Lost Cricket Grounds movingly shows how picturesque greenery gave way to shopping malls and housing estates. The cricket ground is as much a part of the British landscape as the parish church. Hastings used to have a historic ground in the middle of the town surrounded by elegant houses – but then recently it disappeared under a shopping precinct with a branch of River Island where the wicket used to be. Yorkshire used to play at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane – until the football club built grandstands over it. Like so many companies with works grounds, Guinness have closed their cricket ground at Park Royal and sold it for an industrial estate. Now, in a further addition to Aurum’s successful ‘Lost’ series, following Britain’s Lost Cities and Lost Victorian Britain, Guardian journalist Chris Arnot tours the country in search of our most lamented lost cricket grounds, hearing reminiscences from former players and spectators, and finding what, if anything, is left nowadays, apart from the poignant photographs of their picturesque heyday that make this a nostalgic and rueful trip back in time.

Winner of the WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR award and the TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR, this book is a celebration of the elegance and timeless beauty of cricket—its greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to today’s stars, along with its idyllic and hallowed grounds. Cricket has been played for over three hundred years and in some ways remains largely unchanged. It is this timelessness, and the style and spirit in which the game is conducted, which is celebrated in This Is Cricket. The book brings together such idyllic settings as Sir Paul Getty's Ground in Buckinghamshire, U.K., surrounded by rolling countryside, with the Otago cricket ground in New Zealand set against a backdrop of mountains, as well as the sport's most hallowed pitches, including Lord's (opened by Thomas Lord in 1814) and Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted the first-ever International "Test" match in 1877. Readers will venture on a journey to the Caribbean, where the fast bowling attack of the West Indies reigned in the 1970s, and to India, where cricket soared to new heights in the 1980s. From Shane Warne's hat-trick at the MCG in 1994 to Ben Stokes's heroics at Lord's and Headingley in 2019, This Is Cricket captures many of the game's most extraordinary events and players. The striking images of on-field action as well as candid dressing-room moments, some published here for the first time, are taken by some of the most respected photographers in sport. Featuring bucolic village greens, charming pavilions, endearing team portraits, extraordinary catches, devastating bowling, heroic batting, stylish sweaters, and silly fancy dress, this book illustrates why cricket is the second most popular sport in the world and why it is truly loved by so many.

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • "Netherland tells the fragmented story of a man in exile—from home, family and, most poignantly, from himself.” —Washington Post Book World In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, and left alone after his English wife and son return to London, Hans van den Broek stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. As the two men share their vastly different experiences of contemporary immigrant life in America, an unforgettable portrait emerges of an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.

Born on a council estate in London's King's Cross, Fred showed an incredible aptitude both as batsman and bowler from an early age. From these humble beginnings he began his lifelong involvement with the game, first as a player, then coach and finally as an England selector. His incredible rise through the ranks of the cricketing establishment was even more remarkable given his background and the class divisions that once characterised British cricket. His career has been as eventful off the pitch as it has been on. When playing with Ted Dexter, Dexter once insisted he and Fred opened the innings in a Test match, so they could have the afternoon free to go racing at Cheltenham, and, after losing four toes in 1968, Titmus confounded all predictions by returning to first class cricket seven weeks later. Fred Titmus: A Life in Cricket is a remarkable testament to an extraordinary man.

This is more than just a sports book, although the author is an accomplished Test cricketer. Justin Langer was a member of one of Australia's greatest sporting teams for nearly a decade?but the messages of this inspirational guidebook go far beyond the boundary rope. Many of the book's stories come from the sporting field?and its leading characters are high-profile champions, such as Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, and Matthew Hayden?but the lessons learned can be shared by all of us. A handbook for overcoming self-doubt, for reveling in success, and for aiming high, this book is.