A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

First a list of all the things this book is not about

This won’t give you all the records and statistics of Dutch football.

Doesn’t have a chronological history of the game in the country. Doesn’t talk in detail about all their great players, great matches or great clubs. To sum it up, this book isn’t the best preparatory material for a quiz on Dutch football. You might even end up in last place.

In that sense, it is quite unlike most of the books written about a country or a club’s football history and culture. In fact, the writer often goes on for pages without even talking about football, forget Dutch football. And yet, it is in my humble opinion ( as well as that of most people who write reviews on Amazon.com and goodreads.com) quite easily the best book on Dutch football.

Because David Winner’s book deals with something much more profound and goes much deeper in its investigation.

It talks about the mental makeup of the Dutch nation – why they are what they are?

It does a very good job of explaining a lot of other Dutch peculiarities – and I use that word because the Dutch are the antithesis of a conformist regular normal world. And in doing so it answers the questions about Dutch football. Why and how the Dutch came up with Total Football? Why the Dutch lose all the important matches? Why the players always get into fights? Why it is wrong to call the Netherlands the Brazil of Europe? The Dutch concept of nationalism and patriotism? And the Dutch definition of a good footballer?

If Dutch football was a living person then this book makes it very clear that the head is the most important organ; more valuable than the feet. And then it does what Freud would have tried to do – study the person’s head.

And that ways, the book is very aptly named. And David Winner has written a book unlike any other.

Two of the fascinating concepts that this book deals with are individualism and space – and explains that both are as much a part of the national fabric as of their approach to football. Individualism is not the freedom to do whatever he feels like but to retain a strong sense of the self while still keeping the collective in mind. And space is to create space where there is none – something the country below sea level does on an ongoing basis.

A special mention must be made of a very fine introduction by Franklin Foer who makes a very interesting analogy that the richness of football is like a cultural Galapagos.

This book is like a fine meal. You need to eat slowly and savour every morsel. It might bore the casual fan as he looks to read about the feats of the all conquering Ajax side of the early seventies. The least he is expecting is a chapter on the three consecutive European triumphs. But all he gets is bits and pieces, here and there.

But if he can soldier on, he will have the pleasure of reading one of finest books written on football. He will see the Dutch in a new light and might just become an Oranje supporter for life (The Dutch have been one of my favourite teams but after this book, I got an Orange jersey to wear during the World Cup)

You will not win the quiz but you will surely win the paper writing competition on Dutch football.

Rating – Five out of Five all the way.

As articulated by Malcolm Gladwell in the introduction, Bill Simmons has the best job in the world – one that all of us would want to have. He is a huge sports fan who watches sports for a living.  That fan comes alive every now and then in his writings. He is not the high priest of sports writing.  He is the kind of writer that sports fans want to be – one who creates hypothetical situations and debates them to death. If you have the remotest interest in basketball, American football, baseball or ice hockey, then you absolutely have to read his column. He is funny and witty and the likes of Ravi Shastri and Krish Srikkanth  must thank their stars that he doesn’t follow cricket.

The right hand bar has a link to Bill Simmons’ writing.

Now for the good stuff about the book.

The book is wonderful and gives you a lot of information about the NBA. Its a must have for any basketball fan. The foot notes are funny and there is enough content there to write a book on them. The three most interesting features of the book are the what-if debates ( almost all of them are here) , the pyramid of greatest players – which according to Simmons should replace the Hall of Fame because all players in the Hall of fame cannot be equal and  there has to be different levels of greatness and finally the various all-time squads for different situations.

Simmons also does a good job of comparing different eras of the sport and that creates the ground for comparing players from different times. There is a lot of research which has gone into the book and it is advisable to read the book with youtube as a contant refernce tool. You will need to watch the videos to fully appreciate the point Simmons is trying to make.

Now for the criticism.

My favourite basketball writer lets us down with some of his arguments. He is continuously trying to prove that he is not a Boston homer but in the end he fails to do so.

The problem with his arguments is that he is not consistent in giving importance to the same parameters across the board.

An example to highlight the point.

He argues that Wilt Chamberlain’s team mates were just as good as Bill Russell’s and hence the former Laker cannot be given the benefit of having inferior team mates. In comparing how good the players were, he looks at all-star appearances and hall of fame status. But then he creates a new pyramid which debunks the logic used for hall of fame selections.

Most of Russell’s team mates sit high up in the pyramid, whereas Wilt’s team mates are way below. If the Pyramid rankings are used to judge which superstar had better team mates, then Russell’s mates are way superior to that of Wilt. And that nullifies the arguments used by Simmons to settle that debate of ” which player was better” in Russell’s favour.

But in Simmons’ defense, it is his passion and his being a Boston homer which makes his writing so special. Therefore, it is worth bearing with the book’s weaknesses and cheering it for being a wonderful guide for any NBA fan.

Final Rating – Four out of Five

The writers are subject matter experts and have had first hand experience.

1. ‘The importance of solid openers in one day cricket’ by Sunil Gavaskar. The press release of this book turned ugly because some   journalists wanted to ask questions about an innings Gavaskar played in the first World Cup.

2. ‘Yorkers are the safest delivery when the opposition needs a boundary ball’ by Chetan Sharma. This one comes with a demo video. The video has received the highest number of hits from Pakistan and has been banned in India for causing serious mental anguish to the cricket fans.

3. ‘Great captains – strategies, tactics and getting someone to do the dirty job’ by Greg Chappell and Douglas Jardine. Trevor Chappell and the family of Harold Larwood have filed a suit to claim part of the book’s profits.

4. ‘Batting tips for no 11’s’ by Courtney Walsh and Danny Morrison.

5. ‘The reverse sweep is the safest shot in pressure situations’ by Mike Gatting.

6. ‘Running between wickets’ by Sourav Ganguly and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

7. ‘How to deceive batsmen with your run-up’ by David Johnson.

8. ‘Catches win matches’ by Herschelle Gibbs.

9. ‘Duckworth Lewis simplified for quick calculations’ by Mark Boucher.

10. ‘Winning is everything’ by Courtney Walsh and Gundappa Vishwanath.

11. ‘The umpire’s word is final’ by Mike Gatting. Gatting has dedicated the book to Shakoor Rana.

12. ‘Cricketers should drink within their limits’ by David Boon. This book is in the shape of a Fosters can.

13. ‘A batsman is supposed to hold the bat and not the ball’ by Steve Waugh, Graham Gooch and Mohinder Amarnath.

14. ‘How to take advantage of the new ball’ by Eknath Solkar and ML Jaisimha. This book inspired Venkatesh Prasad to take up fast bowling.

15. ‘A great debut is a sign of greater things to come’ by Bob Massie, Narendra Hirwani, Mathew Sinclair and Reginald Foster.

16. ‘How to face fast bowlers with courage and courage alone’ by Graham Yallop. This book is currently being offered free with cricket helmets.

17. ‘The art of sledging fast bowlers’ by Aamir Sohail.

18. ‘Scoring in boundaries’ by Bill Woodfull and Geoffrey Boycott.

19. ‘The art of restrictive bowling’ by Tilak Raj, Malcolm Nash and Stuart Broad.

20. ‘Batsmen should put a price on their wicket’ by Hemulal Yadav and AJ Harris. The publishers had organized a book signing event but unfortunately, these guys couldn’t make it to the event on time.

21. ‘How fast bowlers can avoid over-stepping the bowling crease’ by Zaid Mir.

22. ‘Making sure you get to your century’ by Michael Slater and Steve Waugh.

23. ‘Best practises for cricket from outside cricket’ by John Buchannan.

24. ‘Sri Lanka – a land of crafty bowlers’ by Darrell Hair. This book was released in Sri Lanka by Arjuna Ranatunga.

25. ‘How to play the Australian bowlers’ by Maninder Singh.

26. ‘An exciting cricketer makes for a witty commentator’ by Rameez Raja and Ravi Shastri. This one comes with a statutory warning – ‘The readers of this book are advised not to get carried away and actually try to listen to the writers’ commentary. This could lead to loss of hair and damage to the television.’

27. ‘How to win age-group tournaments’ – a collection of essays and research papers from the BCCI and the PCB. The forward has been written by the famous former teenager Shahid Afridi.

28. ‘Talent is the currency which matters in cricket’ by Maharaja of Vizianagram aka Vizzy. The author paid to get the book published and  sent free copies to everyone.

We are starting another section on ACF. This one is going to be called – Books you should never read. The name is self explanatory.
And hence I will not bother elaborating. And if you still don’t understand than you are the kind of person who will read these books.

Will have different posts for different sports starting with football. The post will be updated as and when more wonderful books – deserving of this list – are released.

Some of you might not be familiar with a few of the authors. Don’t worry. Just Google or go to Wikipedia and you will come to know about the writers and their accomplishments.  If that doesn’t work, then let us know. We will shed light on the author and how he came to write the book.

So here we go. In no particular order. All are equally good.

1. ‘How to take a penalty’ by Martin Palermo. This comes with an instruction video as well.

2. ‘How to save a club from relegation’ by Ian Dowie. This has separate versions for managers and players.

3. ‘How to settle down at a new club’ by Rivaldo and Denilson. This one stands out from other books on the same topic because the co-authors cover 4 continents and various countries with different cultures.

4. ‘How to make money from the football business’ by Juan Soler, Ken Bates and all the Portsmouth owners.

5. ‘How to deal with joint ownership issues at a football club’ by George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

6. ‘How to buy footballing happiness with money’ by Roman Abramovich.

7. ‘How to promote your national league’ by the chairmen of Rangers and Celtic football clubs.

8. ‘How to behave yourself on the bench’ by Sven Goran Eriksson.

9. ‘How to avoid injuries before important tournaments’ by Santi Canizares.

10. ‘Football is a team game’  by Didier Drogba.

11. ‘How to play fantasy football with “Real” money’ by Florentino Perez.

12. ‘Playing football means more than anything else’ by Winston Bogarde.

13. ‘How footballers can become role models for kids’ by Joey Barton.

14. ‘Having super-rich owners is every football fan’s dream’ by the fans of Crystal Palace.

15. ‘How to surprise your opposition ( as well as your own team) by squad rotation’ by Claudio Ranieri and Rafa Benitez.

16. ‘New rules make football an interesting game’ by Sepp Blatter. This has a forward by Brian Glanville.

17. ‘Playing for your enemy – importance of loyalty in football derbies’ by Ronaldo and Peter Beardsley.

18. ‘How defenders can avoid scoring own-goals goals’  byStan van den Buys.

19. ‘Honesty is the best policy in football’ by Erich Mielke. New edition has a new section from Luciano Moggi.

20. ‘Dribbling is not everything’ by Denilson.

21. ‘Goalkeepers should mark their territory’ by Rene Higuita.

22. ‘Goalkeepers have the best fashion sense in football’ by Jorge Campos.

23. ‘How to make friends with the manager’ by Jaap Stam.

24. ‘There is no place for human error in football’ by Tofik Bakhramov.

Dear Ricky,

As an Indian cricket fan, it gives me tremendous pleasure in writing to you now. I was pleased when you got berated in the home series by your own fans but at least you had the full-fledged support of Cricket Australia then. Now that the public is baying for your blood for being over –defensive and trying to save yourself a suspension at cost of the match and the series and your cricket board seems to have joined them with Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland asking you for an explanation, I am over the moon. Wonder how you are going to handle this now.

I am surprised that you and your team called the Indians defensive for their approach on Day 3 of the final test match. Didn’t you recognize the same stifling tactics that Australian sides have so successfully used ever since they got a bowler called Glenn McGrath? It started on the historic tour of the West Indies in 1994-95. Now you can’t take it just because you are on the receiving end. I guess that attitude is part of your DNA. You have to define the boundaries of sledging. You have a right to decide what kind of match-fixing is OK and what kind is not. And the same goes for your so-called gamesmanship. You guys pride yourself on playing cricket the hard way, right. So what is all the fuss about now? Guess sometimes it gets too hard for you.

We are looking forward to the 2008 edition

You guys (the likes of Adam Gilchrist ) have perfected the art of selling books. You always come up with some controversial nonsense to get the public intrigued. You seem to have done the same with your last memoirs. I was wondering what your next memoirs would be called- Now that you have added another feather in your captaincy cap. You became the first Aussies captain to lose the Ashes in 20 years and now you have become the first guy to lose a series by a two test margin in 25 years. That is quite a legacy you have there. You could call your next memoirs – A rare Australian captain – that would be fitting, considering your record and your popularity. Or you could call it – Losers and Cry-babies too

All the best for the upcoming Ashes. Last time you kept complaining about the substitute fielders. This time you have will have to lock horns with a real bully in Kevin Pietersen. I cant wait for the series to get started. It’s not everyday that you see ‘A rare Australian captain’ in action.