Chappell on Coaching


Book Description

Greg Chappell was one of the greatest test cricketers of the post war era whose skill as a captain and batsman was without peer in the 1970s and 1980s. After his retirement he moved into coaching becoming the coach of Australian state side South Australia where he was worked with many of the current Australian test team on improving their game. In this book he expounds his theories on coaching, a radical approach where the techniques of cricket are a secondary issue compared to refining the core principles of movement of the body and organising yourself and your brain to best use the abilities that you have. His experience of working with people such as Australian Test bowler show that this techniques works and this book will be an invaluable aid not only to coaches but all players who can learn something from the basic premises laid out in the book.




Greg Chappell: Fierce Focus


Book Description

Greg Chappell was the outstanding Australian batsman of his generation. Though he had an appetite for big scores, it was his calm brow and courtly manner that bowlers found just as disheartening. When he followed his brother Ian into the Australian captaincy, his feat of scoring centuries in each innings of his captaincy debut has been unequalled. After retiring he went into coaching, spending some time with South Australia and working as a consultant at Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy. In 2005 he was appointed coach of the Indian national cricket team on a two-year term—a stint that included a stormy public falling out with the captain, Sourav Ganguly. He has been Head Coach of Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and in 2010 Greg Chappell was made Cricket Australia’s first full-time selector and National Talent Manager—a position of unequalled power. In this book Greg Chappell will reflect upon how things have changed since he grew up playing cricket in his backyard with his brothers Ian and Trevor; how Australia’s fortunes have see-sawed over the years; the great teams and the great players; the scandals and the opportunities. He has been a cricketer, captain, commentator and selector—he has seen it all.




Greg Chappell: Not Out


Book Description

Greg Chappell: Not Out brings his many years of experience to the fore to discuss Australia's favourite sport from all angles, including scandals, mental skills, and the future of the game. Greg Chappell's retirement as a cricketer was the conventional end of a great sporting career. But it was only the start of an equally lively journey. An original thinker and a peerless judge of talent, Chappell commands respect and is widely sought after for his views on all things cricket. He has seldom been away from the thick of it. Here, he tells all. Forty years since the underarm, Chappell takes us inside the secretive world of selection. He tells the story of Twenty20's forerunner Super 8s, and reveals his insights from an eventful stint as coach of India. He speaks frankly on a decade at Cricket Australia, including warning signs he saw ahead of the Newlands scandal, and calls for greater focus on the game's mental skills. Chappell also unveils a blueprint for the future of Australian cricket. He argues forcefully that the game has drifted too far from the type of lean, hungry system that helped to take the national team to the top. Greg Chappell: Not Out is a uniquely insightful and entertaining look at cricket, and a must-read for all fans of the sport.




The Grade Cricketer


Book Description

Welcome to the world of The Grade Cricketer. Described as the most original voice in cricket, The Grade Cricketer represents the fading hopes and dreams of every ageing amateur sportsman. In this tell-all 'autobiography', The Grade Cricketer describes his cricketing career with unflinching honesty and plenty of humour, in turn providing insights into the hyper-masculine cricket 'dressing room'. This one-time junior prodigy is now 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 relationship with Dad, his fleeting romances outside the cricket club - 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 enjoying a few celebratory beers afterwards. Or is there? * * * The Grade Cricketer book is based upon the popular Twitter account, @gradecricketer, which has received critical acclaim for its frighteningly honest portrayal of amateur cricket. Now, the time has finally come for this middling amateur sportsman to tell his story in full. 'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks. It's belly-laughing funny but it's also a hymn to the grand and complex game delivered with a narrative pace and ability I'm afraid most Test players don't have. For anyone who ever dreamed of excelling at a sport but never quite made it but still gave it your life, this is the story. A great read!' - Tom Keneally AO.




281 and Beyond


Book Description

A stylish batsman who could score against any kind of bowling, VVS Laxman played over a hundred Tests to aggregate more than 8,000 runs. Cricket fans still remember with awe his game-changing knock of 281 against Australia in 2001 at Eden Gardens. But playing for India was never easy. He was dropped as often as he was picked, and despite his vast experience and unimpeachable skill, he never made it to a World Cup team. All through his playing years, Laxman was known to be a soft-spoken man who kept his distance from controversy. Which is what makes this autobiography truly special. It's candid and reflective, happy and sad by turns, and deeply insightful. He writes of dressing-room meltdowns and champagne evenings, the exhilaration of playing with and against the best in the world, the nuances of batting in different formats and on various pitches, the learnings with John Wright and the rocky times under Greg Chappell. In 281 and Beyond, Laxman lays bare the ecstasy and the trauma of being one of the chosen XI in a country that is devoted to cricket.




Athlete-centred Coaching


Book Description




Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians


Book Description

Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians goes deep into every Indian cricket tour since 1886—taking the reader backstage to when India played its first test in 1932, and bringing the story forward to the more contemporary IPL—to provide a complex and nuanced understanding of the evolution and maturity of the game. Equally, it comes with material that has have never entered the public domain so far—going behind the scenes of cases like Monkeygate, the suspension of Lalit Modi, spot-fixing, and the phase of judicial intervention. It carries not just reportage and analysis, but also player reminiscences, personal interviews, photographs and letters never known or discussed so far in Indian sporting discourse. Weaving together such material, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians unflinchingly confronts questions that demand answering, among them: Has internal bickering impacted the on field performance of the Indian cricket team? Did some of our icons fail the country and the sport by trying to conceal important facts during the spot-fixing investigation? And does it matter to the ordinary fan who heads the BCCI as long as there is transparency and accountability in the system? In the end, in telling the story of the role of cricket in colonial and post-colonial Indian life, and the inter-relationship between those who patronize, promote, play and view the sport. Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians unravels the story of a nation now considered the financial nerve centre of world cricket.




Base Building for Cyclists


Book Description

Once the season starts, most cyclists are saving every spare moment for the road. The miles to ride in preparation for upcoming races leave little time for fundamentals like strength training or cross-training. This is just one of the reasons why Thomas Chapple argues that the success of the upcoming season depends on the extent to which you can build your foundation of aerobic fitness, or your "base," for the road ahead. After identifying a cyclist's strengths and limiters, it is time to sacrifice the volume of training and the perceived level of fitness in order to increase intensity and broaden the aerobic base. In effect, this builds a bigger engine and the cyclist is then able to work back up to the higher volumes and an overall improved levels of fitness and speed. But Chapple's guidance for cyclists extends past the important off-season months to establish a more efficient plan for the upcoming year. A stronger base makes a stronger, faster cyclist.




Peaceful Revolution


Book Description

If you think world peace is a naive concept, Paul K. Chappell’s very existence will give you pause. It’s not enough to say that Chappell – a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran – is a soldier turned peace leader. Experiencing a traumatic upbringing and growing up mixed race in Alabama, he’s a young man forged by violence, rage, and racism into a living weapon for peace. By unlocking the mysteries of human nature, he shows how the muscles of hope, empathy, appreciation, conscience, reason, discipline, and curiosity give us the power to end the wars between countries, our ongoing war with nature, and the war in our hearts.




Playing It My Way


Book Description

'I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar.' -Shane Warne This is cricket icon, Sachin Tendulkar's life story in his own words - his journey from a small boy with dreams to becoming a cricket god. His amazing story has now been turned into a major film, A Billion Dreams, in which he stars. The greatest run-scorer in the history of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 after an astonishing 24 years at the top. The most celebrated Indian cricketer of all time, he received the Bharat Ratna Award - India's highest civilian honour - on the day of his retirement. Now Sachin Tendulkar tells his own remarkable story - from his first Test cap at the age of 16 to his 100th international century and the emotional final farewell that brought his country to a standstill. When a boisterous Mumbai youngster's excess energies were channelled into cricket, the result was record-breaking schoolboy batting exploits that launched the career of a cricketing phenomenon. Before long Sachin Tendulkar was the cornerstone of India's batting line-up, his every move watched by a cricket-mad nation's devoted followers. Never has a cricketer been burdened with so many expectations; never has a cricketer performed at such a high level for so long and with such style - scoring more runs and making more centuries than any other player, in both Tests and one-day games. And perhaps only one cricketer could have brought together a shocked nation by defiantly scoring a Test century shortly after terrorist attacks rocked Mumbai. His many achievements with India include winning the World Cup and topping the world Test rankings. Yet he has also known his fair share of frustration and failure - from injuries and early World Cup exits to stinging criticism from the press, especially during his unhappy tenure as captain. Despite his celebrity status, Sachin Tendulkar has always remained a very private man, devoted to his family and his country. Now, for the first time, he provides a fascinating insight into his personal life and gives a frank and revealing account of a sporting life like no other.