THE TIMES ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP edited by Richard Whitehead

THE TIMES ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP
Edited by Richard Whitehead

Published by The History Press,
97 St George's Place,
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
GL50 3QB

Website: www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Pages: 223

MRP: £12.99

   

Considering that England's breathless - but certainly not hushed - eleventh hour victory in the 2019 World Cup was their first in twelve tournaments, I am somewhat surprised that not more has been written about it, at least in book form. Morgan's Men, an equally very good book, followed the England team before and throughout the tournament but concentrated on England's matches. If readers are as thrifty as me and cannot find a reasonably-priced copy of that year's Wisden which doubtless has excellent coverage, England's World Cup by The Times is likely the book to go to for coverage of all teams and matches in the 2019 World Cup.

Essentially, England's World Cup contains reports and profiles written by their fine correspondents, and also those from The Sunday Times. These were written at the time and therefore every match in the competition is covered with a resume of the scores rather than a full scorecard. With the clamour for statistics these days, the reports feature relevant performances in numbers from the match concerned.

The photographs, like the reports, cover a broad spectrum from the competition. Ben Stokes appears twice kicking his bat in frustration after finishing both innings in the 80s, once dismissed and the other time, in the final, when normal time was exhausted. Although the dismissed innings could not carry England over the line, his later effort saw the scores levelled in the final and kept England in the tournament.

There is a statistical section at the end of the book which highlights the essential figures for both the 2019 tournament and the whole World Cup since its inception in 1975. There will be more exhaustive statistics elsewhere but it is useful to have and gives the major details, especially of the 2019 competition.

Richard Whitehead, who has edited the book, has put together a very worthy account of the tournament which ended so dramatically. Although many will remember that the match and indeed Super Over finished tied and that England won by scoring more boundaries - a rule since discarded - it is also useful to have details of how the Super Over unfolded and how England and New Zealand's wait for their first-ever World Cup tournament win was settled by effectively around a metre.

This is a very useful book for anyone wishing to recall the events of the momentous 2019 World Cup, and is also very reasonably priced.