Nicholas - A beautiful game: my love affair with cricket

Mark is widely respected by cricketers of the past and present. Of course, he is best known for the brilliant way that he brings the game to life on television but I have always enjoyed his writing too. He is fair, honest and kind about the game, which is why he is one of the writers the current players read. This is a superb bookfull of raw emotion, humour and great analysis.

MICHAEL CLARKE

Mark Nicholas, as cricket lovers around the world will know, has been at the centre of the game as a player, writer, commentator and analyst for years. Very few have ever equalled his passion, perception, knowledge of the game and matchless ability to communicate it with wit, charm and flawless fluency. All these qualities and more have flowered in A Beautiful Game, a love letter to cricket marked by incident, insight and all the craft of one of the best and most likeable figures of our times.

STEPHEN FRY

Over the last 25 years Ive gotten to know Mark, the man, and have enjoyed working with him too. The book brings out Marks wonderful knowledge and infectious passion for crickettwo of the things that make listening to him and reading him so enjoyable. I know it will bring a lot of enjoyment to an awful lot of people.

SHANE WARNE

A Beautiful Game is a page turner and there can be no higher praise than that. Marks craft as a writer, with his sharp eye for detail and keen sense of humour, shines throughout. To take a couple of examples, the opening chapter on his family is tender and revealing; a later chapter on Kerry Packer and his influence on the game is both entertaining and spot on in its appraisal.

The book is top class from first to last.

SIR MICHAEL PARKINSON

Quite possibly the best cricket book you will ever reada masterpiece.

MIKE PROCTER

As a respected international cricket broadcaster, Mark has been a powerful salesman for the game on television. He has brought that same passion for the game to his thoughtful and entertaining book, A Beautiful Game.

IAN CHAPPELL

Whether writing or commentating, Mark has always been able to take us inside the game. His book is further proof of that. The chapter on fast bowling is really fantastic. I loved it. If I was buying one cricket book this year, it would be A Beautiful Game.

WASIM AKRAM

Vision, knowledge, enthusiasm: three of the attributes that give Mark authority and respect. In my time as England captain, I bounced many ideas off him and he always had something worthwhile to offer. The book reflects his love for the game, and its his ability to tell the stories that makes it so special. Its a great read.

MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Mark is the best out there, both in front of camera and behind it. He has always written well, one of the few I read, and his book is a typically entertaining collection of thoughts, opinions and memories from inside the soul of the game we love. The Viv Richards stories, for example, perfectly sum up the man I knew and his genius. Mark should have written a book years ago; his love of cricket shines through on every page.

SIR IAN BOTHAM

Our leader, as I call him, is proof that you dont have to have played Test match cricket to be able to become an expert on it. If hed moved his feet a bit moreyknow bent that left kneehe might have played a fair bit at the highest level but, as it is, he has taken his skills into the broadcasting and writing of the game. No one does it better. I know a bit about batting but I could hardly fault his ideas and opinions on the subject. Every chapter is interesting in its own way. I didnt always agree with him but thats not the point. The point is that I wanted to read on.

GEOFFREY BOYCOTT

The thing about Mark is his uniquely positive take on cricket. He knows the game inside out and always talks it up. The various television productions with which he is involved, the interviews, the charities he supports, the articles he writesthey all celebrate cricket and its players. He conveys the message that the game may not be easy but its sure worthwhile. His book is the same, a celebration. A Beautiful Game is the perfect title because that is how he sees cricket.

More power to him I say.

ALASTAIR COOK

Superbly written by someone with intimate knowledge and great affection for the game. Outstanding.

BARRY RICHARDS

Markie boy, as I call him, is a master with words, both written and spoken. He always strives to bring about the good of the game we all love and in doing so he brings a smile to most faces. His positivity is what separates him from others and its this aspect that shines through in this book. God bless you, Markie boy.

SUNIL GAVASKAR

First published in 2016

Copyright Mark Nicholas 2016

The moral right of Mark Nicholas to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

If I Should Go by Joyce Grenfell The Joyce Grenfell Memorial Trust 1980. Reproduced by permission of Sheil Land Associates Ltd.

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

Allen & Unwin

c/o Atlantic Books

Ormond House

2627 Boswell Street

London WC1N 3JZ

Phone: 020 7269 1610

Fax: 020 7430 0916

Email:

Web: www.allenandunwin.com/uk

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN 9781760291983

Trade paperback ISBN 9781760292751

E-Book ISBN 9781952535314

Set by POST Pre-Press Group, Australia

Cover design: Deborah Parry

Cover photographs: Nicholas Wilson (author photo); Ryan PierseCA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images (Adelaide Oval)

To Mum and Dad for making it all possible

And to Kirsten and Leila for continuing to make it all so worthwhile

CONTENTS

At home, aged twelve, in the garden where the Test matches were played. (The door on the right was the entrance to the pavilion!)

The Nicholas family moved house in the spring of 1967. We left a small terrace in Holland Park for the leafy fringes of Roehampton, barely more than a six-hit from the gates to Richmond Park. The new home had a wonderful garden with a lawn and flowerbeds big enough for my mothers interests to sit comfortably alongside mine.

My father and I mowed a narrow strip of grass just beyond the brow of a small tier that hid the white lines we had painted with emulsion as batting and bowling creases. Then I rolled the strip with the barrel of the lawnmower until it appeared flat enough for play. I was nine years old and the game of bat and ball had stolen my heart. The move from street cricket, with stumps chalked on the brick wall outside our old home, to something like the real thing on grass, with a pitch and boundaries, had cast a spell.

My father, Peter, was a decent, if cavalier, club cricketer in the Richie Benaud mould. He struck the ball well and tossed up leg breaks with a splendid lack of concern for their outcome. His interest in cricket came from his own father, who was a wicketkeeper-batsman for the army and Essex and a fine all-round sportsman. With some surprise, I recently found Captain F.W.H. Nicholas, or Freddie Willie Herbie as the lads knew him, in the front row of a huge team photograph in the Lords museum. Apparently my grandfather was much sought after by philanthropists who took the game far and wide. He was a great mate of the Honourable Lionel Tennyson, who captained Hampshire from 1919 to 1932, and of the entrepreneur Sir Julien Cahn. The picture in the museum is of Sir Juliens XI in Jamaica and I have no idea what it is doing there.