Tony Lewis, doyen of Glamorgan County Cricket Club and England Test Batsman, spent his first season in the press box in 1975. He was uniquely placed to gauge the impact of the newly minted Cricket World Cup, called after its sponsor simply The Prudential Cup. He also covers the truncated ashes series of that year between England and Australia.
Statistics and Records
A Summer of Cricket provides a handy record of the games played during the world cup and the ashes, as well as key moments in the county championship and one day domestic cups, providing a useful reference of full scorehands. This creates a rather chronological feel to the book and therefore can come across as a rather dry re-telling of those events whilst hardly replacing Wisden as a reference book.
Illustrations of Cricket Characters
It is amply illustrated by 31 black and white photographs taken by Patrick Eager. These are in many ways the highlight of the book, genuinely capturing the individual cricketers' character in action shots. Its an art to communicate in stills the swashbuckling genuis of Vivian Richards, possibly the greatest batsman the West Indies has ever produced, or the sheer kinetic energy bursting from Dennis Lillee as he explodes at the crease. They are a fine addtion and will be deeply appreciated by any cricket fan.
The Art of Cricket Reportage and John Arlott
Although match reports are not necessarily doomed to repetition, Lewis strains but fails to avoid it here. His insight and understanding of the game is natural for one who has played it at the highest level but his lack of experience in writing is obvious. He does offer insight into the players but too often resorts to generalisations about different nationalities: West Indians are talented but lack discipline, Australians are tough and no nonsense etc. The foreword by John Arlott is almost painful in its soft soaping of the greenhorn. When he quotes CLR James, he just reminds us of the depth of serious cricket writing there is and how pedestrian this effort seems.
Cricket and South Africa: the Shadow of Apartheid
The most shocking to modern sensibilities is the authors reflection on cricket and the situation in South African. Rather then admit he is out of his depth he affects a puzzled disdain for such interruptions of the cricket schedule. Lewis says: "Not since objections to their racial policy of aparthied had undermined their cricketing contacts, for reasons of disapproval or impracticability, had they played international cricket." This other worldliness to such a serious issue does him no favours. His argument that sporting contacts are beneficial to "everyone" comes across as naive and uninformed.
A Cricketing Book for the Fan
Although of interest to committed fans happy to read lots of match reports, peruse statistics and enjoy the anecdotes, this is definitely a book for the cricketing obsessive. The match photographs are genuinely intriguing but Tony Lewis was too early in his writing career to have really hit the heights. Overall an intriguing but unessential footnote to English sporting history.
Tony Lewis, A Summer of Cricket, Pelham Books, 1976, ISBN 7207 0880 X
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