The Cricket Captains of England 1877-1979

Product details

Published June 23 2025
ISBN 978-1-915237-57-6
Format Hardback, eBook
Pages 288 + 16 pages of illustrations
Dimensions 234 × 156 mm

The Cricket Captains of England 1877-1979

Alan Gibson

Price range: £4.99 through £22.00

Alan Gibson tells the fascinating story of the men who have led England in its first 100 years of Test cricket.

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Description

A fresh edition of one of the classics of English cricket history, written by one of the game’s most talented and distinctive writers. With a mixture of detail and delight, shrewd assessment and personal appreciation, Alan Gibson tells the fascinating story of the men who have led England in its first 100 years of Test cricket: from James Lillywhite, promoter and manager as well as captain, to Mike Brearley who ‘illumined the art of captaincy’.

Along the way there are characters and incidents aplenty – the towering WG Grace, the complex Stoddart, Jardine of Bodyline repute and the professional Hutton, Gibson’s own favourite. They are all brought to life against the fascinating backdrop of English social history.

No-one with any feeling for cricket can fail to be intrigued and enchanted by this study of a group of men who, in holding the responsibility of leading England, have, in Gibson’s words, ‘produced more pleasure than pain, and even (not quite the same thing) done more good than harm’.

As well as reproducing the original text, this new edition contains 16 freshly chosen pages of pictures and a 14-page appendix of notes and biographical details of all the captains.

About the Author

Best known for his work within cricket, Alan Gibson had a varied career including stints as a BBC radio producer, historian, Liberal Party candidate and and a Baptist lay preacher. A natural broadcaster, he served as a commentator on Test Match Special from 1962 to 1975. As a journalist, he wrote for a wide range of publications including The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Cricketer and The Spectator. He authored several books and a collection of his work, Of Didcot and the Demon: The Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson, compiled by his son Anthony and published by Fairfield, won the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year in 2010.

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