Being a cricket tragic and a book tragic means that one ends up reading a lot of cricket books. Gideon Haigh has been writing for 20 years now and the quality of his writing has steadily improved over that period. His initial books were well researched with functional but rarely memorable prose. Over time he developed a reputation as one of Australia's finest cricket writers. With On Warne, Gideon Haigh has produced a little masterpiece including some of the finest passages of cricket writing ever committed to page.
Shane Warne, the modern master of the most difficult art in cricket, leg spin, is a fascinating character. Rather than write a conventional biography of him, Haigh has chosen to write a series of reflections on his bowling and his life, aiming to give the reader a greater sense of the cricketer and the man. He succeeds brilliantly. The paperback edition is covered with laudatory quotes about the book so for someone who's read quite a bit of Haigh's work, the expectations were high. He exceeded them. Easily. He gave a great sense of how Warne worked as a bowler and how it felt to be facing him. His analysis of the crises of Warne's career was enlightening and he demonstrated empathy for Warne without allowing that to interfere with critical judgements when he felt they were needed.
There's only 200 pages so it's a pretty quick read and a book that I honestly didn't want to end, such was the quality of the writing. Highly recommended for cricket fans and Gideon Haigh fans.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16309930-on-warne
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