The Grade Cricketer

The Grade Cricketer is without doubt the most original voice in cricket. Over the past four years, this ‘everyman’ cricketer has successfully captured the rich humour and absurdities of club cricket in just 140 characters or less, with some 40,000 Twitter followers feasting on his every word. An expert on everything to do with the game (except scoring runs and taking wickets) his observations on amateur sport carry frightening levels of ‘real-talk’. He is cricket’s answer to Socrates- a modern-day philosopher in whites. But while many have urged him to reveal his identity, The Grade Cricketer has been content to share his wisdom through his anonymous Twitter account (often while seated on the toilet at work). Until now. This is unlike any cricket book you’ve seen before. In fact, it’s the type of autobiography you wish professional cricketers had the confidence to write. It’s vulnerable. It’s self-deprecating. It’s hilarious. If Tom Wolfe turned his hand to cricket fiction, it might look something like this. This one-time junior prodigy is experiencing the lean, increasingly existential years of adult cricket. Here, he learns quickly that one will need more than just runs and wickets to make it in the alpha-dominated grade cricket jungle, where blokes like Nuggsy, Bruiser, Deeks and Robbo reign supreme. Through it all, The Grade Cricketer lays bare his deepest insecurities – his complex relationship with Dad, his fleeting romances outside the cricket club, his numerous attempts at reinvention – and, in turn, we witness a gentle maturation; a slow realisation that perhaps, just maybe, there is more to life than hitting 50 not out in third grade and consuming alcohol afterwards. The Grade Cricketer provides a light-hearted looking glass into the rhythms of an adult sporting dressing room. If you’ve ever wanted to know why someone you love is intent on spending their weekends on a cricket field, this book will give you those answers. —- ISBN: 9781922129819 | ISBN10: 192212981X | ISBN-13: 978-1922129819