Rain Men by Berkmann, Marcus - 1996

Abacus Little, Brown, 1996. Paperback. Very Good. There are many cricket books, and they are all the same. 'Don't Tell Goochi e', autobiographical insights of nights on the tiles in Delhi with Lambie a nd the boys; 'Fruit cake days', a celebrated humourist recalls 'ball' - rel ated banter of yore; and Wisden, a deadly weapon when combined with a therm os flask. Rain Men is different. Like the moment the genius of Richie Benau d first revealed itself to you, it is a cricketing epiphany, a landmark in the literature of the game. 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 s uffers 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 easie r to come by, Rain Men offers essential justification for anyone who has ev er run a team-mate out on purpose or secretly blubbed at a video of Botham' s Ashes.