Posted by We’re pretty sure we were meant to get this review up in time for Christmas. Hopefully Adam won’t mind. From reading his book, he seems like the kind of guy who’d understand failure to complete a relatively straightforward task. That happens quite frequently in Chasing Sachin.
Not that Adam’s main aim was straightforward. He wanted to bowl one delivery at Sachin Tendulkar – apparently simple, but ridiculously ambitious in reality. This goal comes about because one of his mates says that when they were children Adam never managed to bowl him while he was doing a Tendulkar impression.
In every quest there are obstacles, but rather pleasingly the obstacles in Chasing Sachin don’t involve being kidnapped by terrorists or having to travel halfway round the world at great expense. They are more about having to combat hangovers, being afraid of bees, or not knowing how to use a satellite navigation system. It’s easier to identify with the protagonist in a book like that.
Aside from occasional references to Ronnie Irani’s mediocrity, there is relatively little cricket in this book. The sport is really just a backdrop and that’s a good thing in our eyes. It’s a story about bickering with friends and family and spelling email addresses incorrectly. It’s kind of pointless and vaguely about cricket. Unsurprisingly, we enjoyed it rather a lot.
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I hate to see an article go un-commented. It feels naked, and as we all know, nothing good ever came of being naked. However, I’ve not read the book, so all comments will have to be related to the picture of the front cover.
I think I’d have preferred an apostrophe in place of the g in the title, for poetic reasons. Although I must admit, I’m not normally a fan of putting lazy speech into text. So on balance, one or the other but not both.
I like the way that the cover emphasises both the player (small picture) and the man (big face). But I do feel that some people might be confused. Perhaps some note on the cover explaining that the pictures are of different scale might stop people thinking that Tendulkar can grow to enormous size at will.
Then there’s the blurb.
“A hilarious, raucous and laugh out loud book – perfect for cricket and non-cricket fans alike”
Sam Matterface, talkSPORT Radio
1. Surely “AN hilarious…”
2. Surely “laugh-out-loud”
3. What is a “non-cricket fan”? Someone who loves to watch and follow non-cricket?
4. Sam Matterface is not a real person. He is the punchline to a joke about bullfighting in the Swiss Alps. Probably.
In summary, a fine piece of work.
Bert, are you a newspaper sub-editor?
I liked the idea too of taking the g off the first word as then the two words are anagrams of themselves. Is that what you meant by for poetic reasons?
No, I just meant that it would rhyme.
Having said that, I think they missed a trick not calling the book “Chasin’ Sachin – Can His Chains Cash-In As Chin?”
I can’t abide over-anagramming myself
Sorry: I can’t abide over-anagramming, myself