Out of Wilderness

by Graham Gooch

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Richard Olney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main focus and strength of this book is the planning for, playing of and consequences of the South African Breweries XI cricket tour to South Africa in early 1982, better known then and maybe even now as the first "rebel tour" to South Africa. There doesn't seem to have been the protests in the Republic itself that accompanied the second tour in 1989, the strong reactions seem to have been at home in England and all players involved were banned from international cricket for three years. This book details many meetings, the differing approaches of the national governing bodies who took a hard line and the counties who seem to have kept mostly quiet realising that they would be getting some of their best players full time for three years rather than being called away to play for England. That the players on the tour had differing opinions on what the consequences might be is interesting, this was new ground. For future "rebel tours" the sanctions were at least as severe, in the case of the West Indian tour, bans for life were applied only lifted after South Africa were readmitted to international cricket in early nineties.

The book covers Essex County Cricket Club's efforts over the three seasons of Gooch's ban, he profiles many of the players, making as much of an emphasis in their characters as their playing strengths. Over this period Gooch himself was surely the main scorer of runs and of runs at the right tempo and he's not so modest as to play it down entirely but a book about these years by any other would surely give him more credit than he does.

I'm struck as to how much distance there is between first class Cricket and the limited overs versions, there's evidence of a looking down on the limited overs version, that perspective has certainly changed.