Cricket writers Anindya Dutta and Ashley Gray share the pain and rewards of their craft.
“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges”
Ernest Hemingway
In March 1706, a man called William Goldwin, published a slender volume of his early verse called Musea Juveniles. Inside was the poem of 95 lines in Latin that he titled, ‘In Certamen Pilae’ (On a match at ball). As far as anyone knows this was the very first piece of cricket literature.
Cricket has inspired much great writing across the 314 intervening years, although not so much of it in Latin. The likes of Neville Cardus stand out as great story tellers and stylists, lighting the path for the many that have followed.
As in the game itself, the appearance of simplicity is the result of inspiration, insight, talent but plenty of perspiration too.
In this Guerillashire Podcast Tony Bishop is joined by two best - selling cricket writers to discuss not just their books, but the different paths they take to go from blank page to best seller.
Anindya Dutta is a former banker, now writer and Guerilla Cricket commentator who for a while has been keeping the likes of Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni off Amazon India’s top spot with his latest book The Greatest Year – The 1971 Tours of West Indies and England.
Ashley Gray is a sportswriter whose stories have appeared in Wisden, Fox Sports, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and All out Cricket. Most recently, his book The Unforgiven, Mercenaries or Missionaries, tells the stories of West Indian cricketers who toured apartheid South Africa and has been nominated for Wisden book of the year.
Thanks to Jeff Perkins for the theme tune and jingles and to Jon Stone for editing and production support.
To get exclusive access to all of our podcasts, visit https://www.patreon.com/Guerillacricket
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
