Cracking Cricket
Robin Bennett, illustrated by Matt Cherry
Firefly Press

Written with humour and bursting with facts and advice on how to be an ace bowler, batter and fielder in any combination and much, much more.

The author begins with the history of the sport that includes some wacky theories about how it started, the favourite being that it was made up by bored shepherds some time between 1300 and 1600 – hmm! And like most of the chapters, this ends with a focus on a favourite player; there’s also one or more ‘cool quotes’ in each chapter. I particularly liked this from Stuart Broad, ‘people talk about cricket being an individual game, but I really don’t agree; everything is done in a partnership.’ and had to laugh at this said by Aussie, Greg Chappell, ‘ I can’t say I’m batting badly . I’m not batting long enough to be batting badly.’

We meet the members of a team – opening batters, the top, middle and lower orders, bowlers – fast and spin, the fielder (every team member must be one of those) and the wicket-keeper, and learn about the task of the nightwatchman (that name needs updating) and the joy of being an all-rounder.

One thing I often get confused about is all the different fielding positions and illustrator Matt Cherry provides a helpful diagram of these, complete with several fielders.

There’s a chapter on skills and tactics, another on the future of the game that looks at diversity, masses of stats, plus explanations of key terms.

Wisden it isn’t, but it is a smashing little book (the 3rd in the Stupendous Sports series), for young readers be they players or not. I learned a lot despite being a keen follower of the game.