Bookshelf

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 11

Bookshelf

MEW Zealand cricketers 15 have every reason to admire the Worcestershire and England bastman, T. W. Graveney, who has batted with style, authority and grace in this country on many occasions. TOM GRAVENEY ON CRICKET (Frederick Muller Ltd.; 192 pp) however, is a rather undistinguished performance. To the spectator, Graveney has always appealed as a rosy-checked, smiling sort of man. but much of this book is devoted to rather unnecessary criticism of this and that, some of his fellow players being brought to judgment.

One can understand Graveney wanting to explain his side of the dispute with him leaving a county for

which he had played so well for many years; but even the modern cricket reading public must by now have had a surfeit of back-stage squabbles on tours. There are many typically sunny and enjoyable passages, but on the whole, the book is not of. the same calibre and character as the author’s cricket. $ # A N interesting change from the usual run of sports books is the SPORT AND PASTIME ANNUAL, 1965, (162 pp.), published in Madras. This magazine covers a wide range of sports, with particular reference to India’s chief interests, cricket and hockey. The New Zealand cricket tour this year is given prominance, and it is heartening to note the reaction to India’s victory at New Delhi, after the three previous tests had been drawn.

Comparing the visit of the Australians at the start of the season with that of the New Zealanders the magazine says: “Reid and his players were cast in an entirely different mould. Playing Test cricket only on and off, they still possess the capacity to visualise the game for the many moments of joy it offered and for the camaraderie it created between the participants. Every act that deserved appreciation was applauded by them: when success came to India victor and vanquished came back to the pavilion arm in arm. The dynamic approach of the Australians, the hard way in which they planned and played the game, with a total absence of sentiment evoked admiration; but the New Zealanders cricket went out of their hearts into the hearts of the multitude, touching a vibrant chord.”

So was the tour, in fact, a failure? Losses mean little, in circumstances such as these ... the article also referred to the New Zealand captain, J. R. Reid, refusing to let B. R. Taylor change a troublesome boot while in the middle of an over—lndia was trying to score 70 in an hour—and to Reid’s refusal to take a drinks break. New Zealand, in fact, probably needs a tougher approach to its cricket. Or does it?

The annual is liberally illustrated, and even for those not familiar with the Indian sporting scene, is of much interest.