Cricket, Lovely Cricket?

Having found myself needing to start reading a new book a few days before the start of the first Ashes Test Match, it seemed appropriate to pick up Lawrence Booth’s “Cricket, Lovely Cricket?”. Booth is a cricket write for The Guardian newspaper and Wisden Cricket Monthly and so well placed to write a series of chapters exploring various aspects of the game of cricket, including the personalities of the different cricket nations, the role of fans in the game, the England v Australia rivalry. I enjoyed the book – it satisfied the requirement of getting me into a cricket mood for the summer without being too obsessive and it left me intrigued about some of the stories told. It’s just a pity that as I write this, on the last day of the First Test, Australia are pummelling England towards defeat as usual…