With an astute understanding of my literary interests, my partner bought me a few cricket books for Christmas. One was 'Grovel!', to which I shall return in a future blog or two. Actually I asked for that one. The surprise choice was CLR James' classic, 'Beyond a Boundary'. By coincidence, 2013 sees the book's fiftieth anniversary.
Journalist, teacher, broadcaster, political activist and cricketer, James was a man from a different era. Born in Trinidad in 1901, he lived through not only Caribbean colonial struggles and two World Wars but also the careers of sporting legends such as CB Fry, Jack Hobbs, Ranjitsinhji, Victor Trumper, Wilf Rhodes and, of course, Don Bradman. He could also devote a chapter to WG Grace with more than just a wistful glance at record books; there was also a fascinating treatise of Grace as the ultimate Victorian who changed attitudes to sport forever.
The author was a friend and confidante of the West Indian all-rounder Sir Learie Constantine and was also close to 'The Black Bradman', George Headley, grandfather to a future England bowler Dean. The book is quite a difficult read for those of used to 'biographies by numbers' that dominate bookshelves in the 21st century. Part autobiography, part social history and part love story for cricket, the narrative flits around quite a bit but it is intriguing to spot differences and similarities to issues that have dominated the sport in the past few decades.
James campaigned for Frank Worrell to be named as the first non-white West Indian captain but also wrote in favour of an all-black team tour of apartheid South Africa on the basis that criminals don't like to have their crimes exposed to the world. The respected batsman and skipper Worrell did lead the side to Australia where the locals treated the tourists like heroes. Would that happen now?! The book also covers the issue of scoring rates. By the late 1950s, defence had switched from back foot to front foot and runs had become hard to come by. Tactics were negative, as was pitch preparation, and while there were superb attacking batsmen like Peter May, Neil Harvey, Keith Miller and Everton Weekes, it was often not the done thing to hit over the top. Amateurs from the public schools still rules the roost in many counties (May, Cowdrey, etc) but the days of the Gentlemen vs Players fixtures were numbered.
The final chapters were written in 1961-2, a year before the first experiment with one-day competitions beyond league cricket, at least in the modern era. I don't know whether James returned to the subject in book form after the revolutions of World Series Cricket. He didn't die until 1989 so he would certainly have had opinions of fellow West Indians Lloyd, Richards, Marshall et al, as well as their international contemporaries. James didn't live to witness the bastardised version of cricket that is Twenty20 but my guess is that he may have approved. It's not classical cricket, it's not the stage for elegance to thrive. However, it does encourage creativity in a different form, from the Dilscoop to the slow bouncer.
If you get the chance, do take a look. Yes, it's old-fashioned in many ways, but it's written with huge affection for cricket which can only be applauded.
