Peter Roebuck
Former International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive Malcolm Speed’s memoir of his time in cricket, ‘Sticky Wicket’, is an unbiased and relevant eye-opener about what went on behind the scenes in cricket in the past 10 years, noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck has said. “If the style is as dry as a paper clip, the content is colourful. Along the way Speed describes the rumour-ridden inquiry into Bob Woolmer’s death at the 2003 Cricket World Cup, an investigation hijacked by a vainglorious detective and a silly coroner,” Roebuck wrote in his syndicated column for the Sydney Morning Herald. “He talks about the disastrous 2003 Cup, the growth of Indian power, the move from London to Dubai, the advent of Twenty20, the attempt to spread the game beyond the Old Empire, and the sensible changes made to the throwing law.”
“He focuses on the notorious SCG Test against India that showed numerous players and both boards in a poor light, an issue from which only a Kiwi judge emerged with credit,” he added.Speed also outlines the crass manipulations over former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s candidacy for the ICC vice-presidency. “The Zimbabweans were especially alarmed by it, and worked relentlessly behind the scenes to block him, only to deny it later,” Roebuck wrote.
Roebuck further highlighted that Speed talks about the Allen Stanford debacle, and describes the great West Indian players hanging to his coat-tails and Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards raging at the ICC’s reluctance to accept their man’s grandiose proposals. (ANI)
ISBN: 9780732293390 ISBN-10: 0732293391 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Date Published: 1/04/2011 Format: Paperback Book Pages: 336 Language: English
Paperback | April 2011
ISBN-13: 9780732293390
