James makes a rather beautiful observation regarding not just cricket, but sport in general; that this is for many an aesthetic experience, on a par with watching, for example, theatre or ballet. His own prose, above all as he describes the forgotten cricketing heroes of his boyhood Trinidad, makes the point forcefully. Watching these players expanded his understanding of the possible, the potential that is latent in the human form. Cricket is perhaps all the more remarkable for being a sport that is not contingent so much on physical strength or power. On the cricket field there’s room for all sorts. It’s a game where even today, players can continue to operate at the highest levels into their late thirties, even their forties. The spindly veteran spinner can outthink the dashing young batsman.
The book is at its best when looking backwards to the past. His account of the way in which the local cricket matches binded his Trinidadian community together, youngsters and elders, men and women, is beguiling. It helps to explain why cricket, with its extended, day-long playing times, so often mocked, is in fact a great celebratory communal event. James is also, unsurprisingly, very good on the way in which cricket helped to form a Trinidadian identity, as well as a West Indian identity. In this regard it seems a pity that the book ends before the period of West Indian dominance which marked my own youth. Doubtless he would have had a few contrarian things to have said, alongside the plaudits.
However, perhaps the strongest section of the book is the one where James discusses the origins of the professional game in England. Earlier in the book he has described his passion for English literature, formed through this colonial schooling. His thesis on the way in which sport, particularly cricket, is as important as anything else in the construction of Victorian society is beautifully outlined in the chapters on Grace and the evolution of the game in the nineteenth century. Born in 1901, it feels as though James has spoken with those from previous generations who lived through this remarkable period. In a few brief chapters he manages to convey as much about the transformation of Victorian society towards something still recognisable today as many an extended novel. Not least because his own upbringing permitted him to see the cohesive power of sport, something which even now occupies little space in intellectual discourse, despite the fact that organised sport has become, across the whole world, a dominant cultural practice.
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