Reviews
Richie Benaud wrote of the 1984 release of the book:
| “ | Almost 40 years ago when first produced, The Art of Cricket was acclaimed as the most brilliant coaching book ever written and illustrated. In some ways that might not be surprising because the young cricketer, Don Bradman, who later was knighted for his services to the game, had the most incisive mind and was the clearest thinker I found in the time I was a player and captain. It was no coincidence that he was able to put down his thoughts on the matter of coaching, and the need or otherwise for it, in such a concise manner. Although the finest batsman the world has ever seen, he played his cricket with the creed of keeping it simple and that line of thinking has continued throughout the pages and photographs in this book. You will see that it is not a vast book which is quite deliberate from a man who could always perfectly convey his precise meaning and intentions with economy of words. In 1958 he managed to slice through the rhetoric of cricket coaching to produce a book that is able to be perfectly understood by pupil and teacher, a trait in modern-day coaching which does not necessarily apply. Despite the passage of time, the book holds the same position as was the case way back in 1958. It is brilliant. |
” |
John Arlott wrote of the book in Wisden:
| “ | Sir Donald clearly bent himself to the task of writing it with that single-minded concentration which raised his batting to such sustained heights. He indulges no literary excesses but impressively – and quite characteristically – employs words with precision, undeterred by theories of style from using the same word a second time on the heels of the first when, in fact, that word is the only one which perfectly suits his purpose. Superficially, The Art of Cricket is a book of instruction: to the interested reader, however, it becomes much more than that. It is a reflection of the author's approach to the game and a careful gathering of his thinking about it, presented with superbly chosen illustrations. So it becomes the nearest approach yet achieved to an epitome of cricket. That the chapters on batting, fielding and captaincy should be illuminating was to be expected: that those on bowling should be so profound is a measure of the great batsman's study of his adversaries. To the young player this must be an impressively revealing study: while, at the other pole of play, it is hard to believe that even a Test cricketer could read it without profit. It has been said that Sir Donald, in his cricket, allied to his physical gifts that type of genius which Carlyle described as 'an infinite capacity for taking pains'. Those who never saw Bradman bat can be convinced of that second quality in him by reading his book. | ” |
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Famous quotes containing the word reviews:
“Why do I do this every Sunday? Even the book reviews seem to be the same as last week’s. Different books—same reviews.”
—John Osborne (1929–1994)
“When the reviews are bad I tell my staff that they can join me as I cry all the way to the bank.”
—Wladziu Valentino Liberace (1919–1987)
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)