Snappy but predictable offering brings order to a chaotic 12 months
Josh Burrows14-Feb-2009
The year gone by was one of seismic shifts as Twenty20’s flashing blades got towork cutting the heart out of Test cricket. It may not be long before books that reviewthe past 12 months become a sought-after vintage, though this may overstate the valueof the well organised .Jonathan Agnew, editor for the 10th time, damns the Stanford Super Series as”controversial and wholly unnecessary”, and writes succinct but unremarkable features on, among others, Jimmy Anderson’s resurgence and Michael Vaughan’s falling star. The year ends in early November, having started in October 2007.Mark Baldwin’s chronological and comprehensive round-ups of the domesticcompetitions are excellent and accompanied by carefully compiled stats (though youmight need a magnifying glass to decipher some). There are tidy features on MushtaqAhmed, Graeme Hick, Graham Napier’s 58-ball 152 not out, the ruinous weatherand each of the four domestic competition winners, though Mark Ramprakash’s centuryof centuries goes almost unnoticed.After Justin Langer has told us why Australia will win the 2009 Ashes, a fewpages are dedicated to each of the Test-playing nations. Tony Cozier’s analysisof the lucrative West Indian revolution is the highlight: “Everything that happenedduring the Stanford Super Series week in Antigua represents a good news story for West Indies cricket.”This is a snappy but largely predictable offering and as a glossy compendium itwould have been improved by bigger, better and more varied photos. So who mightbuy it? Durham fans desperate for any and every piece of literature documenting theirChampionship-winning season? Or perhaps Allen Stanford, who had as much to do withcricket in 2008 as anyone and has probably never heard of ?Jonathan Agnew’s Cricket Year 2008
by Jonathan Agnew
A&C Black £24.99
