Game For Anything - Gideon Haigh

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Gideon Haigh, the highly acclaimed writer from Melbourne is back! After great success with the comedy classic “Many a Slip”, a view on his local cricket club, he revisits past articles and essays all of which span the last five years or so.

There is no denying the fact that Gideon is a talented writer, he has been compared to the greats of the game including David Frith and the legendary Neville Cardus, both authors of a score or more books. His reputation for being an intelligent, whitty and stylish writer are well earned. Haigh has the ability to draw you in to his world; suck you in if you will. No matter what the subject or if an interest in cricket is a given, Gideon can quite comfortably sell sand to the Arabs!

The book is very different to “Many a Slip's” comedy genre. In it we find a collection of well crafted articles; a highlight package if you will, most appearing in England, India and Pakistan and a few have been published in Australia. There are profiles of players past and present - Don Bradman, Ranjitsinhji, Richie Benaud, Jack Gregory, Steve Waugh, Warne and Akram. Buy the Book

In addition to the individual profiles Gideon covers some of the best writers to have written about the great game including EW Swanton, CLR James and Tim Lane. The major themes of the last couple of decades are covered in great length - World Series Cricket and Packer, the integrity of Zimbabwe, sledging and the fall of Hanse Cronje caught match-fixing.

“It would be an exaggeration to classify Hanse Cronje as an evil man - he was at worst amoral, greedy and vain.” Interestingly a comparison between the Chicago White Sox World Series team of 1919 and Hanse Cronje's match fixing is made by Haigh in one chapter written for WisdenCricket Monthly in 2002. Later dubbed the Black Sox for throwing the series against the Cincinnati Reds it is interesting to note that all eight players involved in the scandal in 1919 were banned from baseball for life despite being cleared by the Grand Jury.

Unlike their counterparts, the South African players involved in the Hanse Cronje affair did rather well following the publicity, most notably Herschelle Gibbs who admitted to participating in the match fixing scandal and was given a six moth suspension from international cricket - he still plays for South Africa following his return from the wilderness!

None of the players involved with Hanse (including Symcox, Hudson and Strydom) received life bans for their part in the scandal that rocked the cricketing world. Talking before his death Hanse said suggested his reasons for taking the money were “greed, stupidityand the lure of easy money” also claiming “I was arrogant enough to think I would get away with it”. Cronje died in 2002 when a cargo plane he was travelling on crashed into the Outeniqua mountain range.

Of sledging Gideon Haigh says “I don't accept that it's 'part and parcel of the game', as Australians are want to put it, any more than Iaccept that roadrage is part and parcel of driving”. In the article he shares how, while playing for his local cricket club in Melbourne of 12 years, sledging has grown more personal, pervasive, pernicious and more planned. All this away from the glare of the television cameras, a worrying trend in modern cricket. Haigh describes Brett Lee as a “plonker” and not as the bowler would like when his over enthusiastic celebratory actions are shown on tv following the removal of a tailender. Surely actions like this do nothing to enhance ones reputation.

With well over 50 articles written over the last five years or so, “Game for Anything” has a little something for everyone from the keen history buff to the club cricketer reading the book while waiting to bat. Go out and pick up your copy now before they disappear from the shelves. I can't wait until Gideon releases his next book. A superb collection of great writings, Haigh scores a double century, takes a five fer, wins man of the match - he simply delivers.

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