Cricket's age of innocence

County cricketers were on the treadmill of the game for six months every year - the cricket season - and fumbled about wondering what to do the other six months

Easier Said Than Done
Alan Wilkins
Roli Books
278 pages; Rs 595


On a Saturday evening in 1980, three bowlers of English cricket county Gloucestershire were travelling in a car to Manchester. The fourth person in the car was their scorer, Bert Avery. The bowlers —Alan Wilkins, Brian Brain, and David Partridge — had been pounded all day by Ian Botham, who took Somerset from 119 for 3 at lunch to 429 for 4 at tea. Botham finished with 228, with the help of 27 fours and 10 sixes. It felt like a physical beating, recalls Wilkins, whose