The Extraordinary Book of South African Cricket (Penguin Books) By Kevin McCallum and David O’Sullivan (R133)
There is a long tradition of top class cricketers turning their hand to journalism: think about Richie Benaud, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussein. Kevin McCallum and David O’Sullivan do not come from that proud tradition.
Their best friends will acknowledge that, even in their youth, they would seldom have troubled the selectors of any cricket side, although scribe Stuart Hess does claim McCallum (Chief Sports Writer for Independent Newspapers) “can bat a bit”. Boozers’ League doesn’t count, Mr Hess.
O’Sullivan reckons that if journalism, and specifically radio, hadn’t become his life’s passion, he would “without doubt” have won at least provincial colours in procrastination. He would, he further believes, have been a shoo-in for national colours in “TV sport watching”– and in both versions of the game (think Test v T20): the “home couch” and “the Radium beerhall”. But the closest McCallum will ever get to being like his cycling hero Lance Armstrong will be with the pile treatment they both need for “saddle bum”.
Yet, the new book by the Dynamic Duo (anyone say Batman and Robin?) certainly proves that those who can, do it and those who can’t, write about it.
The Extraordinary Book of SA Cricket is exactly that – an amazing compendium of bits and pieces of cricketing fact (without becoming fixated on stats in a way the anoraks would love), amusing anecdotes, pieces of history and lots of what we hacks call “colour”.
Just the sort of book for putting under the Christmas tree for the sports fanatic in your life. And if he or she doesn’t get it for you, buy it yourself. It’s ideal, as McCallum pointed out in an interview, for those visits to the loo, when you’re ducking your significant other as she/he starts issuing the domestic chores orders.
The best thing about the book is that it is written as it would be told – at the bar, around the braai fire or in the stands. No pretension. No bullshit. Lots of laughs.
Thanks goodness McCallum and O’Sullivan were (and are) duffers. If they had been halfway competent in cricket whites, we might never have had the entertainment of their written words. – Reviewed by Brendan Seery