Sports literature is replete with rich narratives enhanced by anecdotes that make you revisit these iconic books. Writers worldwide have documented and described sporting events in a compelling style. Cricket and football have made a massive contribution to gladdening the hearts of book lovers, but some titles attract you to other disciplines, too.
Biographies and autobiographies dominate sports literature, even as history captures readers’ attention. Although one has grown up reading books of all genres, some engaging writing offers a fantastic insight into the competitive world of sports.
These writers are acknowledged for their astounding research – Neville Cardus, Peter Oborne, Jack Fingleton, Ray Robinson, Richard Ford, Gideon Haigh, and CLR James are some names that stand out for their grasp of the subject and language.
I have picked five books from different sports as must-reads. At home, Sunil Gavaskar’s Sunny Days remains an all-time best. It is a fascinating chronicle of his cricketing life, written when he was 26. Sunny Days is simply unputdownable.
Golden Boy by Christian Ryan is a biography that shows the dark side of Australian cricket while highlighting Kim Hughes’s inglorious exit. This book has stunning writing and is the best biography of a sporting hero. Of course, I am not excluding Open by Andre Aggasi, which is an example of model writing.
Here is the list of five from my collection, which are available for purchase online, of over 500 books that merit space in your library:
1) Rome 1960 by David Maraniss
He writes about the Olympics that changed the world. It traces some high-voltage competitions that saw the first doping scandal and brings us the feats of marathoner Abebe Bikila, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, and boxer Cassius Clay. Rome hosted the first commercially broadcast Olympics. Maraniss is outstanding in his minute details of the Games as he writes about some dramatic contests. Published by Simon & Schuster in 2008, Rome 1960 takes you to the venues literally to relive the magnificence of sports writing. The book is your ticket to understanding one of the most significant sporting spectacles ever.
2) The Beautiful Team, In Search of Pele and the 1970 Brazilians by Garry Jenkins
This is excellent work by the writer who travels to Brazil in search of the magnificent 11 that captured the FIFA World Cup to be hailed as the most beautiful of the most beautiful game. The author meets every team member to understand their lives, 28 years after the achievement in Mexico. The book, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998, is an exhilarating journey.
3) The Fight by Norman Mailer
This book is 234 pages long and steeped in the history of an unforgettable sporting event that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1975. Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman, a fight to die for and Mailer’s poetry to live for. Mailer brings out every aspect of boxing with a riveting throwback to Ali and Foreman looking to kill each other inside the ring. The book is easily the best sports book I have read on a fight that was immortalised in a tribute by British singer Johnny Wakelin a year after the fight. The Fight, published by Vintage International in 1975, is all about the fight and much more in a book; you could pick it up and start reading from any page.
4) Brightly Fades The Don by Jack Fingleton
This is the ultimate book of cricket writing. Beyond a Boundary by CLR James occupies every cricket lover’s library, but Fingleton’s work is classic. No one has drawn the amazing character of Don Bradman, the person and the batsman, as Fingleton, his teammate. Fingleton takes us to the 1948 tour to England, Bradman’s final series, and comes up with an unmatched critique of the most loved international cricketer. First published in 1949 by Collins, it is an all-time great cricket book.
5) The Rivals by Johnette Howard
Published by Broadway Books in 2005, the book is a heartwarming tribute to the epic duels and extraordinary friendship between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Their 80 encounters over 16 years have been documented in various publications, but nothing beats the detailed narrative by the award-winning Howard. As she says, the book is the first to examine the intertwined journey of the legendary champions.
