Brilliance off the pitch

As I write this I am surrounded by Summer Not quite the season of oppressive heat but cricket books bearing the word Summer in their titleIn front of me is a reprint of Australian writer Gideon Haighrsquos 1997 classic The Summer Game now published by 81allout Publishingmdashspearheaded by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan the fine cricket writer and accomplished podcasterTo my left is a pile of bestknown cricket photographer Patrick Eagarrsquos books on various series in the 1980s with text by Alan Ross A Summer to Remember 1981 Ashes leads the row followed by Summer of the AllRounder 1982 series in England featuring Pakistan and India Summer of Speed 198283 Ashes An Australian Summer 1985 Ashes Summer of Suspense 1986 series in England involving India and New Zealand and West Indian Summer England v West Indies 1988Kiwis and Indians Test series v New Zealand and 1983 World Cup and Tour of Tours 1989 Ashes are among the books in which Englishman Eagar didnrsquot use the word Summer in the titleAlso Read Bans will scare away offendersThere are more Summer books the lsquoseniormostrsquo in my collection being Indian Summer ndash An Account of the Cricket Tour in England 1946 by John Arlott It was a wet summer with England winning the opening Test at Lordrsquos by 10 wickets followed by two rainruined draws at Old Trafford and The OvalUnlike what India will experience in next monthrsquos trip to England for the June 711 World Test Championship final there were plenty of games going into the 1946 Test series In fact 12warmup gamesArlottrsquos description of Indiarsquos visit to Scotland to play them in a tour game at Edinburgh on May 22 and 23 1946 is worth reproducing ldquoRice curry and fruit crowned the finest hospitality received by the touring team and their Scot hosts put the visitorsrsquo happiness first It was a happy visit for every member of the party and memories of food in Scotland remained to the end of the tourrdquoOf the cricket Arlott wrote ldquoHafeez Abdul took a wicket with his first ball of the tour Sarwate Chandu had a matchbag of 12 wickets including a hattrick and Hazare Vijay came out with five for 52 Gul Mahomed delighted the crowd with some acrobatic fielding and the game was duly won by India led by IAK Pataudi by an innings and 56 runsrdquoThe English broadcaster and writer also authored Two Summers at the Tests which encompassed the England v South Africa series in 1947 and Don Bradmanrsquos 1948 Australians in EnglandBack to Haighrsquos book The new publisher has managed to use the same Keith Miller image which adorned the original 1997 edition thanks to the Bradman Museum in Bowral It was shot during a New South Wales v Marylebone Cricket Club the England team toured under this banner till 197677 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1950 I learn the photographer Ross Freeman worked for the Daily Telegraph Freeman rarely did cricket and was a wedding photographer postretirementArmed with permission to use the magnificent Miller image for his third reprinted book after Mike Marquseersquos War Minus the Shooting and Mike Cowardrsquos Cricket Beyond the Bazaar Vaidyanathan chose a Miller fan to write the Foreword Ian Chappell In it the former Australia captain raises a toast to Haigh for not only summarising the ldquoimportant playing years between 1949 and 1971rdquo but also bringing to life the ldquopreviously overlooked view of the characters who were involved in cricketrdquoHighhanded officials like Chappell called them feature in the book along with the courageous players and performances in an era which was not comfortable for Australian teams touring the subcontinentChappellrsquos anecdoteladen Foreword is layered with straight talk He has not for the first time blamed selector Don Bradman for Millerrsquos exclusion from the 194950 tour of South AfricaldquoThis is another classic case of Sir Donald Bradmanrsquos accepted cricket intelligence being outweighed by his vindictivenessrdquo writes ChappellI was particularly pleased to see a correction made in the case of the late journalist GK Menon Haigh had referred to the reporter as Ghulam Menon in his 1997 edition of The Summer Game Menon went down in India v Australia history as it were for making his way to the field in the 196970 Brabourne Stadium Test to tell the umpires that the scorer in the press box couldnrsquot see their signals because of the flames caused by the riot post S Venkataraghavanrsquos controversial second innings dismissalThere are many qualities that make Haigh the best cricket writer in the game What stands out in this book are the dialogues conversations he has managed to suss out from his interviewees And facts For example he writes about how excaptain Richie Benaud was in the Caribbean to report for the Sydney Sun newspaper in 1966 Benaud was determined to validate claims over West Indies pace ace Charlie Griffithrsquos suspect action Haigh reveals the exact type of camera equipment Benaud brought on that tour to film Griffithmdasha Minolta SR7 400mm Tamron lens two tripods a light meter and 100 rolls of filmThe Summer Game is a rediscovered precious stone Instead of letting it continue to be an outofprint book only to be found in antiquarian sections of book catalogues 81allout have brought it to life Long live such true cricket loversmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper