Six obscure cricket books

Nothing can be more thrilling for me than browsing Haverford Library or WorldCat's catalog of cricket books at an ungodly hour. Whether you are a bibliophile or a bibliomaniac, if you are into collecting cricket books with New Year's resolutions around the corner here are some suggestions that I have culled solely going by the eccentricity and rarity of their nature:

The title explains it all. Penned by Roger Morgan-Grenville and Richard Perkins, it is about White Hunter Cricket Club and their efforts to remain not out on the very first ball. As David Gower relates in the foreword:

Thus the joy of the story is, for instance, the thought of the Yacht Designer trundling on year after year, in the sure knowledge in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, that one day one ball will actually turn to him. Or of the Human Sieve believing, really believing there is a half-century in him, even though this would involve him scoring 45 more runs than he had ever done in one go before.

Victor Lewis authored this book which sadly (for some) is not what it may seem it is. No, it's not a compendium of all the ties in ODIs and Tests rather it's a book about his collection of neck ties pertaining to the sport. Either way, going by the title, I was sold.

This is a token book sui generis, or of its own kind going to a dissertation-level depth espousing all the nitty-gritty details for anyone to be an expert on Glamorgan's heroics. Did you know about the match when Glamorgan had only five fielders, or about how a Glamorgan batsman who was dismissed twice in the span of a minute?

There are many facets of the game that aren't given as much spotlight as they should be. I would love to hear about what goes on during that nanosecond after the ball is let loose from the hand. Slow Death is biography of Rudi Koertzen who earned the moniker due to raising his left arm slowly giving the dreary signal to the batsman. Rudi is the only umpier to have officiated in 200 ODI and 100 Test matches. In this memoir he also rates the cricketers whom he has umpired over the years.

Not much is known about this book. It would be one of those rare gems to find it nowadays that was published in 1957. Again it is a book in it's own niche that focuses on a localized part of the sport.

Philadelphia was once the Mecca for cricket hosting teams from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland and West Indies. The blurb of the book mentions that although cricket evolved earlier in England it's precursor "Wicket" was being played for for more than 300 years in Connecticut. The book includes the early history of cricket in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay!

With that I bid you adieu as we welcome 2015. Happy new year folks!