Cricket Explained Description:

Cricket Explained review:
5 stars (A fantastic guide for the recently initiated) - I had the pleasure of catching two of the five days of an England test match against South Africa at the Oval during a recent holiday in London. As an American and an avid baseball fan, all I had ever heard of cricket was "boring", "incomprehensible" and, yet again, "boring". I found my two days at the Oval fascinating and was fortunate enough to not only have the patience to pay attention to the game during those two days, but also to stumble upon this great book at a bookstore on Fulham. I was even more fortunate to find the book between the two days I attended, read it from cover to cover, and have become a bit of a pest now to my American nonbelieving friends. Cricket is a great sport and if you want the quick and dirty, well here it is. From Googly to Howzhat, it's all here. Now I know enough to pester my Indian neighbors during the next test match. I wish I had this book last year during the World Cup. Great read.
5 stars (Informative and amusing at the same time) - This book is best suited to somebody who has witnessed some cricket without having a clue what was going on. The book is filled with answers to questions typical of the ones a novice might ask (why do they all wear white? don't they all get bored? who's WINNING???). Fun cartoons throughout. I understand that the UK edition of this book is called 'what is a googly?'.
1 stars (Save your pennies) - Cricket the grand old English game, the gentlemens game. More research should have explained the games heritage and how it was introduced to the countries that were under English rule, thus giving a greater understanding of how the game came to dominate in the former English colonies. I think that this emphasis would have made for not only a deeper understanding of why Cricket has failed to establish itself as a serious sport in many countries that were not part of the English commowealth but also why the game is steaped in English tradition.