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What I Love About Cricket: One Man's Vain Attempt to Explain Cricket to a Teenager who Couldn't Give a Toss
A cricket obsessive decides to teach his daughter’s skateboarding boyfriend all about the wisdom of the game of cricket. Slowly but surely cricket seeps into their shared summer.
- GenresNonfictionSports
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 19, 2010
Another poor book! thats three on the trot for me. Abook that promised so much but never really got going. A bit of a mish mash of relationship with daughter, the introduction of a boyfriend, cricket watched, cricket played and other bits including James Bond which passed me by. All promising but none ever explored enough
October 4, 2025
A Sandy Balfour book about cricket was always going to appeal to me. His Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8) was the book that taught me so much about cryptic crosswords - but there was more to it than that. It was his musings over identity, his travels and his family that made it less than a dry manual.
And this book has much of that - a certain lightness of touch, thoughtfulness and occasional dry wit. But I don't think it's on a par as a beginner's tutorial. Not a lot of the book is given over to whatever lessons he might give the boy on cricket - aside from taking him to a few matches. It does give a few interesting insights into the world of club cricket, but to understand much of the cricket content of the book, you'll no doubt need to be beyond beginner level.
That doesn't make it a bad book - just as Pretty Girl... isn't just about the crosswords, this isn't just about the cricket, it's at least as much about family life and watching your children grow up. And just like cricket, it's a reasonably entertaining way to pass a few hours over the summer.
And this book has much of that - a certain lightness of touch, thoughtfulness and occasional dry wit. But I don't think it's on a par as a beginner's tutorial. Not a lot of the book is given over to whatever lessons he might give the boy on cricket - aside from taking him to a few matches. It does give a few interesting insights into the world of club cricket, but to understand much of the cricket content of the book, you'll no doubt need to be beyond beginner level.
That doesn't make it a bad book - just as Pretty Girl... isn't just about the crosswords, this isn't just about the cricket, it's at least as much about family life and watching your children grow up. And just like cricket, it's a reasonably entertaining way to pass a few hours over the summer.
March 24, 2026
As cricket season is almost upon us, as the first textbook cover drives are imagined and rehearsed, as the perfectly pitched off break begins to formulate in my minds eye (and nowhere else), I thought it would be lovely to give myself a break from the heavy stuff and indulge in light, whimsical thoughts on life and young love through the prism of cricket.
This is a lovely little book, brimming with wit and charm. It is the most infuriatingly middle class thing I have read inbuears, but it's about a middle aged man enjoying cricket...it was never going to be about taking to the barricades and calling for an end to society. Not until after September.
It's fun, it's funny, it was a breeze to read and I laughed out loud three or four times.
It also does go some way to explain why those of us who fall under the siren song of cricket end up as bewitched as we are for 6 months of the year.
This is a lovely little book, brimming with wit and charm. It is the most infuriatingly middle class thing I have read inbuears, but it's about a middle aged man enjoying cricket...it was never going to be about taking to the barricades and calling for an end to society. Not until after September.
It's fun, it's funny, it was a breeze to read and I laughed out loud three or four times.
It also does go some way to explain why those of us who fall under the siren song of cricket end up as bewitched as we are for 6 months of the year.
September 10, 2023
It is possible to get obsessed with cricket; I get obsessed with the England team. I would be much worse (I mean more obsessed) if I was any good at playing it. Sandy Balfour is an active player as well as a supporter. Cricket fills his down time away from his family but his family surely comes first. He wants to pass on the wisdom that he's gained from cricket to the benefit of his children, and there is a sense in which he has made himself understood, which is heartening.
The writer has a beautiful daughter who has a skateboarding boyfriend. Sandy Balfour would like to pass on his love and knowledge to the unpromising boyfriend in an attempt to bond with him, or get to know him, or mentor him, or all three.
The book jacket is very misleading. It looks as though it's all beery wit, but the writer has expectations that we're conversant with Larkin's poems and we know the characters in Moby Dick. In short, his sport isn't just a game but part of a complex culture. This book is helpful in articulating that.
It is very entertaining and its company passed a difficult night when I couldn't sleep.
The writer has a beautiful daughter who has a skateboarding boyfriend. Sandy Balfour would like to pass on his love and knowledge to the unpromising boyfriend in an attempt to bond with him, or get to know him, or mentor him, or all three.
The book jacket is very misleading. It looks as though it's all beery wit, but the writer has expectations that we're conversant with Larkin's poems and we know the characters in Moby Dick. In short, his sport isn't just a game but part of a complex culture. This book is helpful in articulating that.
It is very entertaining and its company passed a difficult night when I couldn't sleep.
February 11, 2020
I grew to love this book as it went along. Very entertaining and atmospheric as an audio book, really well read by Clive Mantle. Philosophical in places and really more about life and parenthood than about cricket in lots of places. As a young father to 3 young kids I found it very thought provoking and enjoyable.
May 29, 2018
A wonderful read for all of us cricket lovers. Especially those with supportive families.
January 7, 2015
Reviewed at my old blog in 2011.
Is not a cricket book. In fact, the parts about cricket are some of the more laboured ones in the book. Sandy Balfour probably has the same problem as most of us have, in that he is not able to articulate too well the deep love for cricket and his village green matches. He doesn’t do half bad with the internationals though.
However, this is a nice, well written, occasionally very-funny (in a stiff-upper-lip british way might I add ….. Balfour has left his South African past behind), sentimental (why, even maudlin at times) and slightly eccentric book about a cricket-mad father and his daughter and her skateboarder boyfriend. You will probably appreciate it more than me if you do have a daughter.
Fever Pitch this is not – as the jacket cover claims. But you don’t have to find a Fever Pitch in every personal memoir on sport. And I was not expecting a Fever Pitch when I opened this.
I rather liked the book. A pleasant, quaint, easy read, it pretty much unfolds like a test match – which is a good thing. Definitely readable. Three stars out of five.
Is not a cricket book. In fact, the parts about cricket are some of the more laboured ones in the book. Sandy Balfour probably has the same problem as most of us have, in that he is not able to articulate too well the deep love for cricket and his village green matches. He doesn’t do half bad with the internationals though.
However, this is a nice, well written, occasionally very-funny (in a stiff-upper-lip british way might I add ….. Balfour has left his South African past behind), sentimental (why, even maudlin at times) and slightly eccentric book about a cricket-mad father and his daughter and her skateboarder boyfriend. You will probably appreciate it more than me if you do have a daughter.
Fever Pitch this is not – as the jacket cover claims. But you don’t have to find a Fever Pitch in every personal memoir on sport. And I was not expecting a Fever Pitch when I opened this.
I rather liked the book. A pleasant, quaint, easy read, it pretty much unfolds like a test match – which is a good thing. Definitely readable. Three stars out of five.
August 20, 2013
It's very British and very much a book for those who not just watch cricket, but get cricket. However, as the most wonderful sports writing does, this book distills cricket into the nooks and crannies of real lives. It's good reading for those that think of sport (specifically cricket) as something more than bat and ball and win and lose, but for those who think that sport (specifically cricket) is also a narrative, an art, and on it's best days, even poetry in motion.
August 19, 2012
A combination of a cricket book and a book about the father daughter relationship. His daughter has always been one of his most precious things, but the relationship begins to change at the appearance of her first boyfriend.
The lad is a skateboarder, but after an accident, he takes him to a Test match and undertakes trying to explain the subtleties of cricket to a sixteen year old. Great book.
The lad is a skateboarder, but after an accident, he takes him to a Test match and undertakes trying to explain the subtleties of cricket to a sixteen year old. Great book.
July 10, 2010
I loved this book from start to finish, 'have a look'.
October 28, 2011
Awesome book try it out!
January 15, 2012
A gentle, pleasant read, recommended to anybody who enjoys cricket and a wry sense of humour. He is an excellent writer.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews