World Cup Cricket: 2007 Programme, Team and Player Profiles
Murray
Books ISBN 0975745549 Buy
It Now
How do you start a balanced
review of a truly magnificent product ? It reminds me
of Simon Cowell to be honest, no nothing to do with
his style of wearing high trouser lines but the X Factor
!It has the Wow factor too and in an ever growing and
competitive cricket market first impressions are crucial.
It simply exudes quality.
 I
can safely say that there isn't another book quite like
this one on the market today. Shaped like a flat cricket
ball the book is covered in a shiny red glossy leather
material with a pretty decent seam running through the
front and back cover. When you first pick up the book
it puts a smile on your face at the ingenious design
of the product – I've yet to see anyone contradict
this so far!
The book first takes us
through the various World Cup tournaments from the very
first in 1975 to the latest offering in 2003. Due to
the lack of facilities worldwide, England hosted the
first two series and were a great success, the weather
held up remarkably well for the first ever tournament,
West Indies the eventual winners and pre tournament
favourites. We learn that the total attendance for the
first World Cup was 158,000 with a final attendance
of 26,000 at Lord's. The prize money was on the small
side if you compare it to the money on offer today -
The West Indies won just £4000 finishing ahead
of Australia (£2000) in the final. it's hard to
imagine such a small total offered for such a prestigious
competition.
Following their inaugural success in '75, West Indies
completed the double four years later, again held in
England, with Viv Richards scoring 138 runs off just
157 balls. Clive Lloyd's team retained the cup by the
margin of 92 runs and despite being 4 for 99 at one
stage won the final comfortably thanks to tight bowling
from Somerset favourite Joel Garner. Garner ripped through
the England batting line-up taking five wickets for
just four runs in the space of 11 balls. The book continues
with a brief history of every World Cup held thereafter
including Sri Lanka's win in 1995, (the prize money
had been raised to £30,000), India's triumph in
1983 at pre tournament outsiders 66-1 and Australia's
double in 1999 and 2003. Buy
It Now
Another interesting addition to the book are the 20
plus profiles of the leading players in modern cricket
including Lara, Ponting, Hussey, Smith and Singh to
name but a few. Each player listed has his own double
page spread, some have more including Lara who has a
comprehensive profile spanning eight pages, with the
article on the left hand page and a full colour photograph
on the right, It takes a short time to get used to reading
text on a circular page as we are so used to reading
rectangular books.
The images used are stunning and
certainly help to bring the book to life. Colourful
and atmospheric, they are well placed throughout the
book.
 A
cricket book wouldn't be complete without statistics
and records and this book is no different! Spread over
64 pages Rajesh Kumar casts his beady eye on every imaginable
statistic and record from the first World Cup in 1975
to the last competition in 2003. Beginning with a statistical
survey of the 2003 World Cup it includes the most wides
conceded , most sixes hit and best scoring rate to name
but a few. Once this small survey is completed Rajesh
then takes us on a comprehensive statistical journey
of the World Cup. You can expect to find the leading
run getters, percentage team wins, highest scores, highest
and lowest match aggregates and the oldest players to
have played. There are simply too many examples to list
here but hopefully this gives you an idea of what's
on offer.
As you would expect from
a World Cup Cricket Book, the title ends with the fixtures
for next year's World Cup in the Caribbean. Buy
It Now
Highly recommended, this
book receives the Gold Award from 334notout for an outstanding
publication that oozes class and style. A superb collection
of articles, profiles and photographs. A book every
fan should have ahead of the 2007 World Cup.
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