The Art of Cricket

Richie Benaud writes: 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.