• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Beyond a Boundary - Half a Century on

Midwinter

State Captain
After reading the article and seeing that some have confessed to not having read the "best book on cricket ever written", and having actually read it, I will give my thoughts on it.

Like most in the article I had heard of the book many years before I has able to find a copy to read. But before that I had come across a copy of "Cricket" by the author,a collection of his newspaper and magazine articles, (including an eye witness description of S.F.Barnes playing in a league game when in in his 60's.)
It is a good read and I recommend it to everyone.

My thoughts on what BaB were influenced by that book,so when I was able lay my hands on a copy of BaB, courtesy of a large multinational chain store, I was initially impressed by the first hand description of the role of cricket in the area where the author grew up.

However the role of the development of the authors political thinking and actions overrode the cricketing aspect of the book for me and in a sense I had been mistaken in what I thought the book would be about.

Back in the early 60's when the baby boom generation was in their youth, the socialist thinking and political struggles of the author may have seemed romantic to a generation wishing to rebel against their parents and the "system" of the time. So to have a book about a favorite sport regarded as part of the "system" which is also "political " may have been the reason it was given such an accolade as the "the best" by people with political sympathy with the author.

It's a good book, thought provoking and at times harrowing in its description of life in the West Indies,well worth a read to broaden your knowledge of the game.

I no longer have a copy of BaB but I have kept his collection of writings on cricket, it may have been given another title by the publishers now days, which I recommend to everyone.
 
Last edited:

Top