Knocking over a back catalogue of my uncle's books, gifted to me after his death, is an exercise in time traveling. Each one is like keeping a connection with the man, who along with my father, shaped me from a child, to a boy, to my own manhood.
This one, written by Greg Chappell following the controversial 1980-81 season, covers the ground he would cover again, with greater honesty, twenty years later. On this pass, he admits regret at the underarm bowling incident but defends it as being within the rules and the result of great pressure he was under, largely from an overcrowded summer and the burgeoning role of the national captain, post Packer. He is unrepentant on the Martin Snedden non-catch but only provided descriptions of the Sunil Gavaskar walk-off.
Of course, two decades later, he revealed that he was suffering heavily from depression when these events took place.
As a time capsule observance of the changing role of the Australian Captain, this book is placed right at the crossroads where the role changed. For that reason alone its interesting.
Elsewhere he muses on the calls for a third TV umpire but his conclusions that it wouldn't work are based on technologies he could not have dreamed off. The personal computer from Apple had only been in the market for four years. His calls for commentators to have less influence on the game are interesting in the light of that becoming a recurrent theme among Australian captains since.
Its a very simple read, as this was one of many Austin Robertson produced books that were pumped into the cricket market post Packer. Others included the Chappelli series, a few by Doug Walters and of course those great adjuncts to literature, the Max Walker books on the topic of hypnotising chooks.
Not great literature but its placement in time makes it interesting.