"Twirly Men" Book Review

Even though my interest in cricket waned after the new high Indian cricket hit on April 2nd and subsequently its lows in England and the yo-yo series in West Indies., I go to ridiculous lengths to read good writing on cricket. I still re-read the works of Neville Cardus - that masterly writer of Manchester Guardian - and the occasional PG Wodehouse stories based on cricket. In India, Rajan Bala had his style of writing but I was a big fan of R.Mohan who wrote for THE HINDU. He was the reason to read about Cricket in any sports newspapers those golden years of 1980s-1990s until he was sacked following an investigation by THE HINDU in the infamous Azharuddin betting scam. After that, R.Mohan wrote but the halycon days were behind him as he never found the same sweet spot of THE HINDU. I used to follow Peter Roebuck almost regularly until his shocking suicide jump - I never really understand what makes anybody jump the gun, I mean, buildings in reacher upper echelons of heaven - for whatever reason. But lets leave that - I feel that Cricket Writing has not improved so much and even Nirmal Shekar and other writers for Wisden don't have the flashes of brilliance that earlier writers used to have. Until, I found a fascinating new writer whose book I strongly recommend - AMOL RAJAN. He writes for THE INDEPENDENT newspaper in London and has written the singularly best book ever on the history and craft of SPIN Bowlers of cricket. Titled "Twirly Men", the book is a masterpiece on the art and history of spin bowling - and must be a treat for all connoisseurs of cricket. For those who missed the golden era of Indian spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna, and Chandraskar or the spin bowlers of yore like Graeme Swann, Larry Golmes, Abdul Qadir,Swanton, Richie Benaud, Zaheer Abbas, Len Hutton Amol Rajan weaves a fascinating and almost read-out-loud, delightful and gripping account of those masters of deception who rarely get their attention like Percussionists of a Carnatic music concert. What amazed me is that Amol Rajan, I googled to find, used to be a spin bowler in English county cricket before taking to writing about the game due to failure from injury and half indolence. If you love books on cricket and revel in reading about WG Grace by Sir Neveille Cardus, TWIRLY MEN deserves an ovation for a rollicking read. Rajan not only traces the craft of spinning through the game's greats over the years, he weaves tales of drama and gets you inside some of those pitch-turning battles that made the spin bowlers heroes of the day - including today's Muralidharan, Warne, Kumble. The book also has a chapter each on a variety of balls that the practitioners have used over the years - the "doosra", the carrom ball, the arm ball, the zooter or slider or nothing ball, the flipper and the googly - each of this ball is illustrated with drawings too. Can't miss this book if you love the game and a writing thats worthy of the game. I will be turning out my best reads of the year category-wise shortly - but having finished this one sooner - cannot resist the read. Take it like Geoff Boycott's commentary on spinning with R.Mohan's literary flourish and Neville Cardus's lyrical beauty of language. "Twirly Men" - best book on Cricket in 2011.