Cricket's 300 Men - Christopher Hilton

Breedon Books Buy Cricket's 300 Men Now

Written by Christopher Hilton and published by Breedon Books, “Cricket's 300 hundred men and one 400 man” is one of those books you wonder why it hasn't been done already. The concept is simple, write a report on every player's innings who reached the magical 300 mark in Test cricket, add newspaper articles from the day and finish it off with a scorecard and there you have it. Easy ! Well not quite !

Just as the book was about to go to print in early May, Christopher Gayle scored his maiden 300 against South Africa in Antigua for the West Indies and in so doing wrote himself into the record books and indeed this book.

What I really like about this book is the amount of depth each innings is dealt with from the very first triple century from Andy Sandham (325) for England against the West Indies in April 1930 to, as mentioned above, Gayle's 317 in May 2005. The newspaper articles add a certain something to the finished articles, giving the reader a chance to see how newspaper articles have changed over the years from an almost ball by ball report in the early 20th century to a more varied coverage in today's press. Given that an account of some of the innings are unknown and rare, an enourmous amount of research and work has gone into this lavishly illustrated publication. Buy Cricket's 300 Men Now

Only two men have reached the magical figure twice in international Test cricket namely Sir Donald Bradman (334 and 304) and Brian Lara (375 and 400). Lara is the only batsman to have reached 400 and regained his world record from Matthew Hayden (380 vs Zimbabwe 2003) in 2004, ten years after recording a then world record of 375.

It is quite remarkable that Bradman whilst scoring his 334 at Headingley in 1930 and Hammond who bettered his record by two runs in 1933 in New Zealand both scored at a faster pace than any of their counterparts including Lara and Inzamam who are both very attacking players.

Many of the players that feature in the book are “forgotten and unknown” in comparison to today's modern day cricketers, not surprisingly as generations pass. Take Robert Maskew Cowper for example. He was born in Kew, Melbourne in 1940 and played 27 Test matches for Australia. He averages over 46 with the bat scoring five centuries along the way. How many people alive today would remember the innings that has him listed in the elite of innings builders? Very few I would hazard a guess, me being one of them.

This is where the book comes into its own, a complete breakdown of not only this innings but each of the 20 innings to reach 300. Up until his 307 in the fifth Test against England in 1966, Cowper's series had only been what could be described as average. Dropped for the fourth Test he returned with a bang for the Melbourne Test and together with Bill Lawry did enough to guarantee that the Ashes would remain in Australia. Lawry who scored 108 took over six hours to reach his century, the equivalent of a full day's play!Buy Cricket's 300 Men Now

In contrast, Bradman's 334 in 1930 took half the time to achieve, scoring 46 boundaries to 20 from Cowpers' bat.

The book also includes characatures of all the players, stats and a run down of match conditions and results. The hard back edition is 192 pages and published by Breedon Books.

The publication is a unique look at not only some of the best players to have played Test cricket but certainly the best (and highest) innings international cricket has seen. A mixture of grace, endurance, speed and guile, the book describes it all in great depth, calling on countless sources from the “Gleaner” in the Caribbean to “The Age” in Australia. A worthy addition to your collection and an invaluable resource for arguably the best of the best in Test cricket.

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