Cricket as I see it - Allan Border

A family holiday when I was 15/16 yrs. old was a turning point in my reading life.  We rented a house in a beautiful part of Phillip Island for a week or two over January.  We didn't have TV, but we did have a Pool Table.  I was a 'sleep in until midday' if possible type of teenager and most mornings I would wake at seven or eight and not get out of bed until twelve.  In the room that I was sleeping in was a bookshelf full of cricket books - I randomly picked up a book by Max Walker.  It was full of funny anecdotes about Doug Walters and 'Tangles' cricketing life.  I devoured three or four of them that holiday - and despite the fact that they are badly written they were rollicking tales and fed my love of cricket.  From that time I started to read cricket books - none of them are good literature - but they are an easy entertaining read.

That is until Gideon Haigh started writing about cricket; what a great writer.  I'm also glad for the Kindle that I got for my birthday a few years ago.  One feels somewhat embarrassed - like you are a voyeur - when one reads about Shane Warne.  I was able to download Haigh's great book on Warne, without having to ask for it in public.  Haigh's inspiring writing, magnificent metaphors of cricket paralleling life - his passionate embellishment an his intellectual prowess takes cricket reading to a new level.

So, I'm on holiday in Far North Queensland and in my lackadaisical mindset can't quite get into a book on Art metaphysics yet - so i saw Allan Border's book in the shop and thought that it would be a nice easy read.

My childhood friend, Tim, had an uncle who was an MCC member.  I remember sitting in the members stand and rushing over to the players walkway as they came out and patting Allan Border and Craig McDermott on the back.  I always admired Border, his sheer grit and determination, and the taking of the captaincy against the backdrop of the Kim Hughes debacle.

Well, this book is the trite cricket anecdotes that never fail to put a smile on my face.  Borders thoughts are repetitive and quite disorganised.  The problem with talking about 'cricket today' is that it rapidly becomes out of date.  Border extols Phil Hughes virtues as a batsman and thinks he should get another go in the team.  Of course, some weeks after the book was published - Hughes died in that tragic cricket accident.

Borders thoughts are interesting because they are Border's thoughts.  However, they are superficial and somewhat banal.  It was a bit tedious when he went through his best world XI - then his best Australian XI - then his best fun XI - sigh.

If you like cricket books - it's a fun read though.

2-3 Stars.