Book Review: From Azeem to Ashes - English Cricket's Struggle With Race and Class

Having read them back to back, there is a certain similarity between this book and Ben Bloom's Batting For Time that I reviewed a few weeks ago. Having said that, the authors approach the subject of the modern game of cricket from different angles and both are very much worth reading. 

Jon Berry has an engaging style of writing and way with words and there were several points in the book where I either smiled or laughed out loud. It is a book where the author's love of his subject shines through, very much for a cricket lover, by one.

The title might give the impression that it is only a look at the recent racism controversies that have enveloped the game, specifically that at Yorkshire, were in-fighting is hardly a new phenomenon. Yet had the book focused solely on that it would have been to its detriment. The forthcoming biography of Azeem Rafiq by George Dobell will cover that story in all of its (very gory) detail.

Berry looks at the modern game of cricket and questions participation at all levels, including the women's game. Access to the game is looked at too, with the best facilities and coaches very much the preserve of those with the wherewithal to access private education. There is also a look at the global game of cricket and the numerous franchises that make it a 365-day a year business, or global circus, if you will.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on the Strauss review. The author makes some very good points and what I found telling was the reference to the modern game as opposed to that after the Second World War, compared again  to the grainy footage of WG Grace. Were one to watch these in chronological sequence, back to back, they would appear very different games. 

But then the game that I grew up with, loved and cherished is in danger of disappearing altogether. For all of its supposed advances, cricket today, for this writer, isn't as enjoyable as what I watched thirty, forty years ago. But it wouldn't have got here without those players and their earlier counterparts.

As I said after reading Ben Bloom's book, it is a shame that such books need to be written, as it highlights a game that is failing to learn from past mistakes and is advancing like a juggernaut towards an out of order stop light. 

But Jon Berry has written a book that is at times uncomfortable, yet entertaining and thoroughly readable.

Highly recommended.

From Azeem to Ashes: English Cricket's Struggle With Race and Class is written by Jon Berry and published by Pitch Publishing