Not many have written a great cricket book before turning 35.
But there's one person who wrote FOUR of them before turning 35.
This is a thread on him.
One of the great cricket writers.
Gideon Haigh.

At the age of 21, Gideon Haigh wrote a book.
A business book written by a business journalist.
70,000 words written over a few weekends. When he got a copy in his hand, he read the first couple of paragraphs. There were some silly typographical errors.
He never read beyond that

In 1989, for a couple of years, he moved to London. The very next year, while watching a boring County Championship match between Surrey and Lancashire at The Oval, he thought of trying his hand at serious cricket writing.

He admired David Frith and the kind of work he did at Wisden Cricket Monthly.
He wrote a piece and posted it to Frith.
Within a week, Frith accepted it and published it in the next issue of the magazine.

Couple of years later, as a staff writer at The Independent Monthly, he wrote a short piece for a magazine called FYI.
That led to him getting an opportunity to interview Craig Serjeant.
Thus began the story of him writing a book on Packer's WSC.

Eleven publishers refused to take it.
Then someone told him about a new publishing house named Text.
They liked his two-page teaser and agreed to publish it. The book flopped but the author, thankfully, decided to stick to cricket writing.

He followed it with 'The Summer Game'.
A low-key book on Australian cricket after Bradman and before Chappell.
Once again, the book failed to reach U.K. and with no reviews, sank without a trace.
But anyone who've read it knows what a gem it is.

'The Summer Game' led to him exploring the life of the odd Jack Iverson.
Initially for Rob Steen's 'The New Ball'.
He found much information and it resulted in 'Mystery Spinner'.
One of the greatest cricket biographies.

Haigh's favourite era has been the so-called 'Golden Age'.
And the Australian who dominated that era was Warwick Armstrong.
"I’d always wanted to read a book about Warwick Armstrong, but it seemed unlikely I would have the opportunity unless I wrote one myself."

'The Big Ship', perhaps, best portrays the scholar in Haigh.
David Frith, among many others, considers this to be his favourite book by Haigh.
And, sometimes, the Iverson book too!
Unsurprising, given the quality of these two biographies.

Frith and Haigh joined hands to write 'Inside Story'.
A wonderfully researched book which, for some odd reason, has never made many headlines.
Not many people are aware of it and it's a great shame.
Haigh himself doesn't have a copy!

More books followed.
Warne, Trumper being among the subjects.
But, I feel, he was at his best till the Armstrong book.
Although, when it comes to his regular column, it has always been top-notch.

In 2010, The Times' Richard Whitehead listed ‘The Fifty Greatest Sports Books’.
49 of those books were easily available in the market.
For the 50th, he rang Gideon Haigh.
Haigh borrowed his mother's copy and posted it to Whitehead.
A copy of 'The Cricket War'.

Some of his books should be reprinted.
Wisden did it for 'The Cricket War'.
Someone must do the same for 'The Summer Game' and 'Inside Story'.

I have been listing down 'Ten Favourite Cricket Books' of cricket writers all over the world and there's been only two who didn't include even one book by Haigh.
One of them was born #OnThisDay in 1965.
What if he had not watched that Surrey v Lancashire match in 1990?