An Island's Eleven

The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket

Nicholas Brookes

$49.99

Paperback

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English

HISTORY PRESS
01 December 2023

Social & cultural history; Sports & outdoor recreation; Cricket

This first book to tell the full story of cricket in Sri Lanka is sure to be a contender for sports book awards.

From Sathasivam to Sangakkara, Murali to Malinga, Sri Lanka can lay claim to some of the world's most remarkable cricketers larger-than-life characters, who thumbed convention and played the game their own way. More so than anywhere else in the world, Sri Lankan cricket has an identity. This is the land of pint-sized swashbuckling batsman, on-the-fly innovators and contorted, cryptic spinners. On the field of play, Victorian ideals of the past collide with madcap tropical hedonism to create something dizzying. Cricket is Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka is cricket.

We all know the story of the '96 World Cup: how a team of unfancied amateurs rose from obscurity to top the world, doing so with such swagger that they changed the way the game was played. Yet the lore of Sri Lankan cricket stretches back much further. In the early days, matches between colonists and locals imbued cricket with a nationalistic drive. Ashes-bound ships stopping over in Colombo brought the world's biggest stars, from Bligh and Bradman to Grace and Grimmet. More recently, Sri Lanka has had to face the triumphs and tragedies that come when cash flows freely into the gentleman's game. An Island's Eleven tells this story for the first time, focusing on the characters and moments that have shaped the game forever.

AUTHOR: Nicholas Brookes is an English writer, who has been based in Colombo since April 2018. He has covered Sri Lankan cricket and its history for international publications including ESPN's The Cricket Monthly and Wisden's The Nightwatchman.

20 colour illustrations

By: Nicholas Brookes
Imprint: HISTORY PRESS
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781803994703
ISBN 10: 1803994703
Publication Date: 01 December 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Nicholas Brookes is an English writer, who has been based in Colombo since April 2018. He has covered Sri Lankan cricket and its history for international publications including ESPN’s The Cricket Monthly and Wisden’s The Nightwatchman.

Reviews for An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket

This is an impeccably researched and beautifully told story, enhanced with anecdotes and first hand accounts, of the rise of Sri Lankan cricket from its colonial roots to becoming world beaters with some of the greatest cricketers to play the game. -- Mike Selvey Packed full of brilliant stories, wonderfully told. An essential addition to cricket literature. -- Tim Wigmore Nicholas Brookes has filled a gap in cricket literature. This wonderful book, based on compendious research, tells the great story of Sri Lankan cricket, how it began in schools and colleges and emerged to become one of the great forces in world cricket. It is more than a cricket book: it is also indispensable for understanding Sri Lanka itself. This book should be in the library of every serious cricket lover. It has been written with real passion and understanding. A great debut from a serious sports historian. -- Peter Oborne This is a great tale, and what’s more, it’s beautifully told. -- Simon Barnes