Never a Gentlemen's Game - Softcover

Compared to the controversies of contemporary cricket - riven as it is with match-fixing, gambling, cheating and national politics - most people think of the early days of Test cricket as a time of gentlemanly competition and camaraderie, with any disputes settled by Queensberry Rules over a glass of port. Not so. Cricket between the 1870s and 1914 was fraught with exactly the same bitter, vicious and greedy bad behaviour as the current game. It was cricket in the raw, explored in depth for the first time by the insightful eye of Malcolm Knox, with a genuine affection for the legends of the day - players like WG Grace, Fred Spofforth, Victor Trumper, Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Stanley Jackson.

One of Australia's most highly acclaimed and versatile writers, Malcolm Knox has published twelve books, including The Greatest: The players, the moments, the matches 1993-2008 (14,200 copies sold), The Captains: The story behind Australia's second most important job (11,000 copies sold) and Greg Chappell: Fierce Focus (7,000 copies sold), as well as four novels. A former literary editor and chief cricket correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, Malcolm has won two Walkley Awards - including one in 2004 for the expose of fraudulent author Norma Khouri - and was runner-up for Journalist of the Year 2004.