Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Honest, 5 Jan 2008
A few of the newspaper reviews of this book suggested it was little more than a self-pitying whinge.
It turned out, however, to be an interesting take on the inside track of modern international sport and those who run and play it.
Since Duncan Fletcher was the coach of the first England team to win the Ashes for the best part of 20 years and was still the coach when the team rather meekly surrendered them a couple of years later, the book necessarily spends a lot of time discussing those two series. He does, however, map the changes in the game during his lifetime, to interesting and insightful effect.
While Fletcher does, as one might expect of a coach, go into some detail about technical aspects of the game (when and how certain shots should be played and certain deliveries should be bowled), I suspect the most interesting parts of the book for most readers will be those where he shines a light on some of the game's heroes, sung and unsung, both on and off the field. His opinions can be strident and he clearly has something of an axe to grind with some aspects of the administration of cricket and with certain individuals; however, the measured, even restrained, tone adopted makes for an interesting and thought-provoking read.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Cricket Book that Left me Wanting More, 4 May 2009
This is an excellent autobiographical work by the best English coach since, well, since England started having coaches.
It's mostly (2/3, say) about his work for the England team; but there's plenty of notes on his upbringing in Rhodesia / Zimbabwe, his playing days and coaching jobs before England. His ghostwriter has ensured it reads well, but the author's personal style and dry wit comes through clearly enough.
Unlike many cricket biography's I've read, at the end I wanted more, and would be really interested to meet the author. Highly recommended.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than expected, 17 Sep 2008
OK, first I should admit that I am a big fan of Duncan Fletcher the coach. He took English cricket from its lowest low and brought success unseen since the days of Trueman and Statham. I also admired Fletcher the man. He stood up to the Aussies and the media and wasn't afraid to make himself unpopular as long as he had the support of his team.
However, when the book was serialised in the English press, it seemed that Fletcher was, through this autobiography, acting in a way that was out of character from the man that had been running the English cricket team so skillfully. Players that had sweated blood for him - Hoggard, for example - seemed to be receiving untold criticism. Fletcher was always big on loyalty, but here he seemed to be being disloyal.
Despite this, I figured it must be worth a read, and on the whole, it is. Fletcher's analysing of the game, the way he looks for bite in his players (hence the preference of Jones to Read) and the way he can see how players use angles and the 'low crouch' (which helped him spot the otherwise-ignored potential of Vaughan, Trescothick and Strauss) are great to read if you're a cricket fan, but probably dull if you're not. On the whole, the book is for the cricket purist; if you want a cricket autobiography that entertains beyond the world of cricket then seek out the more feted books of Simon Hughes, Nasser Hussain and Mike Brearley.
The book isn't as full of vitriol as the media clippings suggest. With the curious exception of Matthew Hoggard, Fletcher is loyal to those that had been loyal to him. The book does its fair share of score settling. Geoffrey Boycott, Henry Blofeld, Ian Botham and a handful of others get it with both barrels. But as they'd spent eight years or so making a living out of criticising Fletcher, he has his right of reply.
On the whole, the press it received on its release didn't do Behind the Shades justice. Fletcher is refreshingly honest throughout the autobiography, and for anyone that has followed English cricket over the past decade or so I would recommend this book. Love him or hate him, Fletcher transformed English cricket, and his approach to cricket - gone through in detail here - shows why English sport could do with more of his ilk.
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