It isn’t just about cricket!
- aksmith304
- 34 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Last month a very good friend of mine, Annie Chave, published her first book, Cricket Changed My Life, which has been very well received in cricketing circles. But it’s not all about cricket… well, of course, it sort of is. Cricket is the scaffolding that links and supports the eleven personal journeys that the book explores. At the same time, however, cricket is just the tip of the iceberg, a compelling entrance point into eleven very different stories drawn from across the globe, that speak to the power of humanity as well as the power of sport.
Annie’s own story is touched upon in the introduction. She grew up a member of a large cricketing family surrounded by warmth, love and the game itself. The dedication to her late mother reminds us of this. We understand from the outset that cricket has shaped her. Then she draws us into other worlds, few of them as comfortable as her own. The opening chapter takes us on a serious emotional journey as we meet Waleed Khan who survived an horrific terrorist attack on his school in Pakistan in which 153 people were killed, 132 of them children. He was sent to Birmingham to be treated for multiple injuries, and it was here that his determination to return to playing cricket gave him the strength to recover and to rebuild his life. At 21 he is a motivational speaker as he continues his education. It is impossible not to feel humbled.
Not all the cricket journeys are quite such an emotional roller-coaster as Waleed’s, but other stories come from India and the West Indies, as well as across the British Isles. They are men’s stories and women’s, tales of pioneers who have impacted on the cricketing world in multiple ways, fighting for equality and opportunities for themselves and others. As well as players, there are journalists, commentators and enablers. The story of Georgie Heath, whose love of cricket gave her the strength to fight back against a crippling eating disorder is astonishing. And the exuberance of Wissal Al-Jaber and Maram Al-Khodir, two Syrian girls still residing in a refugee camp in the Lebanon, is inspiring. Will they make it to the Olympics in 2028? I really hope so.
Much of Annie’s own story can be discerned in her elegant prose, her manipulation of literary styles and her ability to enable her readers to be as empathetic as she is. Cricket has changed her life too. After finding her own cricket cause to champion, she has carved out a career for herself as a writer, a journalist, a commentator, an authority. In the world of cricket, she’s one to watch. I approached this book with trepidation. I knew it would be good, but would it be for me, a person who frankly has very little interest in cricket? The answer: yes, because it’s not just about cricket. It’s about what passion and drive can enable people to achieve, whoever they are and wherever the come from.