Arm-ball to Zooter: A Sideways Look at the Language of Cricket

by Lawrence Booth

Arm-ball to Zooter: A Sideways Look at the Language of Cricket by Lawrence Booth SUNDAY TIMES - BOOK OF THE WEEK Cricket's ability to fit the new alongside the old grins happily out of Lawrence Booth's entertaining writing. SPORT magazine A witty and readable guide to the words that matter... indispensable for newcomers and veterans alike.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2006

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed strolling through this over the past few months.

[Pinaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wittiest possible introduction to cricketing terminologies.
e.g. Leg Before Wicket: Lbw is to cricket what the off-side rule is to FOOTBALL: It is always the first thing people point to when they say they don't understand the game. There is no excuse for this. Put simply, if the ball hits a part of the batsman other than his bat (or the gloves as long as they are holding the bat), did not pitch outside the leg stump, and would in the opinion of the umpire have gone on to hit the wicket, then the batsman is out leg-before. Complications arise when you delve into the detail - and the history of the development of the lbw law is almost worth a book in itself- but we are not talking Fermat's Last Theorem here. If the batsman is hit outside the line of off-stump and is playing a shot, then he is not out. If he is playing no shot- this is usually obvious - then his fate is in the hands of umpires. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

an exhilarating cricket miscellany, taking both the cricket enthusiast and the novice on an enjoyable spin