Rain Men Av Marcus Berkmann

<p>There are many cricket books, and they are all the same. ''Don''t Tell Goochie'', autobiographical insights of nights on the tiles in Delhi with Lambie and the boys; ''Fruit cake days'', a celebrated humourist recalls ''ball'' - related banter of yore; and Wisden, a deadly weapon when combined with a thermos flask. Rain Men is different. Like the moment the genius of Richie Benaud first revealed itself to you, it is a cricketing epiphany, a landmark in the literature of the game.<br><br>Shining the light meter of reason into cricket''s incomparable madness, Marcus Berkmann illuminates all the obsessions and disappointments that the dedicated fan and pathologically hopeful clubman suffers year after year - the ritual humiliation of England''s middle order, the partially-sighted umpires, the battling average that reads more like a shoe size. As satisfying as a perfectly timed cover drive, and rather easier to come by, Rain Men offers essential justification for anyone who has ever run a team-mate out on purpose or secretly blubbed at a video of Botham''s Ashes.</p>