Cricket Biography

When Ramachandra Guha began following the game in the early 1960s, India was utterly marginal to the world of cricket: the country still hadn't won a Test match overseas; by the time he joined the Board of Control for Cricket in India, fifty years later, India had become world cricket's sole superpower.

First of the Summer Wine is the remarkable story of three Yorkshire cricketers from the Golden Age—George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes and Schofield Haigh—who transformed their county's fortunes, inspired a generation of cricketers and left a unique legacy on the game. Between them, Hirst, Rhodes and Haigh scored over 77,000 runs and took almost 9,000 wickets in a combined 2,500 appearances, helping Yorkshire to seven County Championship triumphs.

Michael Parkinson's relationship with his late father, John William, was, and remains, a family love story overflowing with tenderness and tall tales of sporting valour, usually involving Yorkshire cricket or Barnsley FC. However, it was the overwhelming grief which poured out of Michael when Piers Morgan pressed him about John William in a television interview that convinced one of the outstanding broadcasters and journalists of our time to delve deeper into the dynamics of their lives together.

Following his passing in 2019, tributes to Bob came flooding in in every major news outlet and from every major figure in the industry - and outside of it. His career spanned decades, from his days as a cricketer for England to his time as a pundit on Sky TV. This autobiography includes never-before-seen writing from Bob alongside contributions from key figures as well as a detailed account of the great England victory over Australia at Headingly in 1981.

Sir Stanley Jackson captained Harrow School, Cambridge University, and England in a golden epoch of English cricket. It is no bad thing to place the man and his age in perspective before the telling of his story. Our subject played his cricket in an age lost to us forever, an age wreathed in legend.

Nick Compton had it all. A literal golden boy, to many observers it would seem that he was born to be a great in the sporting arena coming as he did from an incredible sporting ancestry. HIs grandfather Sir Denis Compton played cricket for England and football for Arsenal. Honed at an elite English boarding school, with a telegenic profile perfectly suited to the modern media environment, Nick appeared to be blessed with that rare ability to be able to stride out and face down the world's quickest bowlers, to survive and thrive in the danger zone at the hands of the hurtling new ball.

Highlights of a career in cricket from Britain's favourite umpire.Hardly a week goes by without Dickie Bird visiting a county or Test match arena where he can keep up to date with all that is happening in the cricket world, while at the same time taking the opportunity to reflect, in the company of old friends and acquaintances, on his own colourful contribution to the sport that lasted for over half a century. Dickie remains the most famous umpire of them all and is still highly respected throughout the world.

At the young age of 17, Sachin Tendulkar earned the title of being the second youngest man to score 100 runs in international cricket. Sachin: The Story of the World's Greatest Batsman is an audiobook that traces the life and achievements of this individual, who is hailed as being the finest batsman in the world. He has made more than 33,000 runs in international cricket, which is the highest number of runs to be scored by any cricketer. He also has a total of 100 international centuries in his kitty as well.

Hawke first captained Yorkshire in the Championship in 1883. He was also the man who sacked Bobby Peel, the greatest left-arm bowler of his era, and infamously declaimed "Pray God, no professional shall ever captain England", sentiments that very nearly damned him forever. A man of contradictions, strong convictions, more often than not his own worst enemy, this cricketing biography goes behind the myth of the man looking to paint a picture of one of cricket’s great men.

In the modern era of highly professional cricket, with coaches for every aspect of the game and a support staff that outnumbers the players, it often seems that everything should run smoothly. But we all know that life doesn't work that way. Based on his own experiences of embarrassing misunderstandings, awkward mistakes and amusing escapades, Tuffers recalls some of the moments from his career that are more likely to find their way to the blooper reel than to any coaching manual.

Reminiscing about his long life and career at the BBC, Brian talks about many of the diverse occasions and programmes with which he was involved. He also indulges in his well-known love of (rather bad) jokes and puns.

David "Bumble" Lloyd is a legend in our living rooms, a genuine "good bloke" all cricket fans feel they know inside out because of his infectious, larger-than-life personality and that distinctive Lancashire burr. Bumble has become the one constant for passionate English fans in cricket's rapidly changing landscape. He has earned cult status as a commentator and pundit, with viewers loving his unerring dedication to the game's great fables.

When Pat Cummins unexpectedly became Australia's 47th Test captain at age 28, he inherited a team with a long and storied history, but also one on the cusp of reinvention. It was the beginning of a personal leadership journey for him. Inspiring, revealing and deeply personal, Tested is an exploration of the remarkable place where challenge, crisis and opportunity meet, and how it's only in the moments when we are tested that we discover what we are made of.

During her time at the newspaper she faced disdain from fellow sports writers; undertook last-minute, pre-fight research into 'The Rumble in the Jungle' (Muhammad Ali won, surprisingly); tried unsuccessfully to interpret bizarre commentary and memorize results statistics; wept at football matches and discovered a lasting love for golf. She was even nominated for Sports Writer of the Year.

Glenn McGrath is an Australian cricket great - a fast bowler both feared and admired by top-level cricketers around the world. Off the field, his life was touched by tragedy with the death of his first wife, Jane, from breast cancer yet also marked by a determination to celebrate her life and make sure her legacy helps thousands of others through the Jane McGrath Foundation - now one of Australia's biggest and most effective breast cancer charities

This book is a personally written account of Jimmy’s "50 Golden Years", in show business, from holiday camp Redcoat to Bluecoat then onto his first big break on television, (after many struggles), going on to headline for four of his own series for Central television in the 1980s with 'Royal Command Performances' and TV Variety shows in between, then his BBC Radio 2 series written by the great scriptwriter Eddie Braben in the 1990's which ran for five years called, 'Jimmy's Cricket Team'.

Perfect for cricket fans everywhere, Thanks, Johnners is a rich blend of biography and anecdote, of antics and dramas on and off the pitch, in and out of the commentary box, filled with stories about the great names of cricket, including Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, and Ian Botham.

In this new anecdotal book, the unstoppable Dickie Bird takes one County Cricket Club at a time and revisits each with the aid of memorabilia, statistics, books and videos. A mass of new hilarious stories flow from Dickie as he flexes his memory: he describes the cricketers, the matches and the character of these clubs. Dickie also relives his journeys as a umpire to clubs and Test match arenas overseas and recalls the humorous times that have filled his unique career.

An entertaining look at one of sport's greatest rivalries - the Ashes - by former England spin bowler Graeme Swann. Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England vs. Australia battles, having played in three series wins and also the whitewash defeat of 2013-14 when its intensity ended his international career.

For Michael Parkinson it was never really in doubt that he would spend his life in sport. His father, a fearsome fast bowler himself, indoctrinated young Michael from an early age into the Yorkshire cricket tradition and supporting Barnsley FC. All he ever wanted was to play cricket for Yorkshire and England. My Sporting Life is Sir Michael's love letter to sport, to the heroes and legends of his Yorkshire youth, to the characters of the international games he watched and wrote about, and to the very idea of sport itself.