This is Cricket: In the Spirit of the Game

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 cricketits greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to todays 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 Gettys 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 sports most hallowed pitches, including Lords (opened by Thomas Lord in 1814) and Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted the firstever 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 Warnes hattrick at the MCG in 1994 to Ben Stokess heroics at Lords and Headingley in 2019, This Is Cricket captures many of the games most extraordinary events and players. The striking images of onfield action as well as candid dressingroom 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.