Book Review: Golden Boy - Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket by Christian Ryan

In many ways Kim Hughes always struck me as a throwback to a bygone era. His cavalier style of batting, with little regard for the match situation, would not have been out of place in the Cardusian "Golden Era" prior to the First World War. With a landmark beckoning, Hughes often aimed to reach it with a towering six. Sometimes it came off spectacularly, but on others he perished and there can be few big name batsmen who have missed out so often in the 90s as Hughes had a tendency to do. His strokeplay was vivid, innovative and eye-catching, though his self-confessed tendency to decide on the stroke before the ball was delivered could also lead to his downfall. To do that when seeing it like a football is one thing; to do it on a regular basis is not the most sensible of approaches.

A Test average of just under 40 is indicative of talent, but not at the very highest level and a player with Hughes attitude - one similar to Michael Slater, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle and a few more - will always entertain and infuriate in equal measure. As he showed in the centenary Test at Lords, Hughes was like the little girl with the curl: when he was good, he was very, very good - though when he was bad...

I've read a good few books over the years that purported to be "explosive" and this is one of the few that genuinely lives up to the billing. A number of the main protagonists declined to be interviewed for it and the author, Christian Ryan, has done a remarkable job in piecing together the story of an Australian dressing room at a time of turmoil from those willing to talk. There was a lot going on of course - the Packer revolution, rebel tours and big name/big ego players was a recipe for disaster, unless overseen by a player of equable temperament and ability.

Kim Hughes was just short of that and the attitude of the Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee does not show them in the best light. Lillee, trying to knock Hughes' head off at every net session; Marsh, seemingly undermining him at every turn with his own captaincy ambitions thwarted and the Chappells offering little in the way of support and plenty that could be construed as antagonistic. Hughes' carefree attitude sat poorly with them and they made their dissatisfaction patently obvious to most observers, certainly those with more than a passing eye on the Australian dressing room. He was too flashy, too unreliable, too much the outsider to their inner circle. His ultimate breaking down at the press conference as he resigned the captaincy of the national side was more remarkable by the fact that it took so long to happen, given the pressures he faced from inside and outside of the side.

Kim Hughes' career spiralled downwards as his eye went and his foot movement became more leaden. A less than perfect technique being shown up by the physical and psychological bombardment of the West Indies of the time, an unrelenting attack that was always going to test a happy and compulsive hooker. His final years were a melancholic parody of a batsman capable of genuine brilliance as he found various ways of getting out, infuriatingly when well-set.. Yet having played club cricket in Scotland for thirty years, I can vouch for the fact that every overseas professional is still compared to Hughes' spectacular year for Watsonians in Edinburgh before he made the international scene, while those who saw his rapier-like bat in action at Lords in that centenary Test saw batsmanship of a calibre rarely equalled, let alone surpassed. That he was a player of brilliance was undeniable. The reality is that there were just too few days when it lasted long enough to make a real difference.

The author has produced a masterful book that will live long in the memory. Perhaps too sensationalised for some tastes, but if you like your cricket books to make you think, raise your eyebrows and shake your head, this is undoubtedly one for you. As a 'several flies on a wall' account of a disintegrating dressing room, one overly reliant on a handful of ageing players, it is up there with the very best of its genre.

With Christmas coming, I would start slipping hints to the love of your life. This is a seriously powerful and thoroughly engaging read .

Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket is published by Allen and Unwin and the paperback is currently selling for £7.36 on Amazon