The Blog of Small Things

  Name : Ashes 2023 - A cricket classic Authors : Gideon Haigh     Year of Publication : 2023     Genre : Non - Fiction, Cricket     Rating : ***  ( 3 stars out of 5) The book's format is a tough one - bringing together match reports written for a newspaper every day of a cricket series. It could easily feel dated and pointless. Gideon Haigh's gift is to eke magic out of the mundane through his turn of phrase. While the book does not reach the stratospheric standards of his book on the 2005 Ashes, it remains a worthwhile companion to a classic cricket series.

Name :If cricket is a religion, Sachin is God Authors : Vijay Santhanam , Shyam Balasubramanian     Year of Publication : 2009     Genre : Non - Fiction, Cricket     Rating : *** 1/2 ( 3 and a half stars out of 5) The book's title is misleading : It sounds like the title of a mindless eulogy. Rather, the authors have concocted a heady mix of statistics, excerpts from classics, comparison with a legend from another sport, persuasive arguments and nostalgia to cement Sachin's place as the chief deity in the cricketing world of demigods and mortals. When a passionate heart meets an analytical brain, a product like this book is born.

Name : Miracle Makers Authors : Bharat Sundaresan , Gaurav Joshi     Year of Publication : 2023      Genre : Non - Fiction, Cricket     Rating : **  1/2 ( 2 and a half stars out of 5) The authors help the readers relive the historic Indian tour of Australia in 2020-21 with their non-linear style of narration. The COVID wave adds to the challenge of covering the tour as the authors rush from one state to another before the midnight hour leads to closure of the borders. A classic tour definitely needed such a well-paced account but some historical context would have added to the heft. Without such context, the book is content to remain a mere tour diary.