Uh-oh, what’s that rustling sound? Why, it’s me, donning the ol’ publicity sombrero to tell you about my latest book, Australian Cricket’s Best of the Best.
As the cover so boldly states, it’s ‘the outrageous unofficial history of the Allan Border Medal’.
Frankly, I didn’t even know the book was outrageous when I was writing it. I just knew it was unofficial. But now the word is out - you will be outraged by this book. And isn’t that what the modern world’s all about? Outrage? Let’s say it is.
And, look, it’s more than just the AB Medal (or its more modern incarnation, the Australian Cricket Awards). The awards merely give me a filter through which to examine, in close detail, the last twenty-five years of Australian cricket. It’s a quarter-century that saw the peak of a great cricket team, the demise of that team, then the rise of another great cricket team (as well as a third very good one). So we recap all that. It’s fun.
But also, because I’m a nerd with a degree in Statistics that I never use any more, I went back and retrofitted a model that determines who would have won the Allan Border Medal (or Belinda Clark Award) in the 125-odd years before those things were invented. That lets me give a general overview of some of the historical greats of Australian cricket from 1877 on. (You will be pleased to hear that Allan Border would have won an Allan Border Medal.)
So, lots of Australian cricket history, both ancient and very recent. Oh, and I also cover the (many) very silly moments of the actual awards night over the years.
One thing’s for sure, it really is a great book and no mistake. It’s out at the end of the month, but you can preorder now. Please do so, because that means I get money.
https://liebcricket.com/bestofthebest
(That link redirects to a site that lets you find your closest bookstore that will stock it. Sure, they’ve filed it under ‘children’s picture book’ for now. But let’s assume they’ll have that fixed up by the time it comes out. Or, you can read it to your kids and show them the pictures. I’m not fussy.)
If you’d rather just pre-order from, say, Dymocks, you can do that too.
https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/australian-crickets-best-of-the-best-by-dan-liebke-9781923022119
Enjoy!