What's the difference between short leg and deep midwicket? When would you be thinking about bowling a yorker? What's so great about the sound of leather on willow? Cricket’s vocabulary is a mixture of jargon and cliché, poetry and prose, misty-eyed romanticism and old-gits’ cynicism. Arm-ball to Zooter is a witty guide to the peculiarities of the game, its history and major figures; cricket-lovers might find their own pet hates confirmed; cricket newcomers might be amazed at what cricket-lovers have been up to all these years.

THE WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR and THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR. 'The most complete, best researched, roses-and-thorns history of cricket in Pakistan' Independent 'As good as it's likely to get' Guardian The nation of Pakistan was born out of the trauma of Partition from India in 1947. Its cricket team evolved in the chaotic aftermath. Initially unrecognised, underfunded and weak, Pakistan's team grew to become a major force in world cricket. Since the early days of the Raj, cricket has been entwined with national identity and Pakistan's successes helped to define its status in the world. Defiant in defence, irresistible in attack, players such as A.H.Kardar, Fazal Mahmood, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan awed their contemporaries and inspired their successors. The story of Pakistan cricket is filled with triumph and tragedy. In recent years, it has been threatened by the same problems affecting Pakistan itself: fallout from the 'war on terror', sectarian violence, corruption, crises in health and education, and a shortage of effective leaders. For twenty years, Pakistan cricket has been stained by the scandalous behaviour of the players involved in match-fixing. After 2009, the fear of violence drove Pakistan's international cricket into exile. But Peter Oborne's narrative is also full of hope. For all its troubles, cricket gives all Pakistanis a chance to excel and express themselves, a sense of identity and a cause for pride in their country. Packed with first-hand recollections, and digging deep into political, social and cultural history, Wounded Tiger is a major study of sport and nationhood.

Cricket, Lovely Cricket is a journey around the perennially curious world of cricket, leaving no metaphorical leg-break unturned and peering at the game from every conceivable angle. Here, Lawrence Booth, who had little option but to turn a youthful obsession with the game into a means of paying the mortgage, seeks to consider the questions that crop up on a daily basis but rarely receive a satisfactory answer. What are the players really like? What is the secret of sledging? Why get so worked up about the Ashes? Why all the clichés? And how did India take over the world? Taking the reader to the heart of a game that seems more capable than any other of bewitching its followers, this is a captivating look at the way cricket has become what it is today - and what, given a fair wind, it might be like in the future.

This second edition of Young Wisden is the perfect introduction to one of the most enjoyable world sports. Packed with hundreds of new colour photographs and illustrations, and completely updated to include the latest stats and stars, this vibrantly designed book really brings the game to life. The authors take a wry look at every aspect of the game that a new fan could wish to know about, including: the basics - from how to read the scorecard to a crash course in the language types of cricket - the Twenty20, one-day and first-class formats of the game at all levels, from beach cricket through to international Test cricket batsmen, bowlers, fielders, keepers and thinkers - what it takes to be great in each position and plenty of info on the best there has been the world of cricket - the Test nations, the great grounds, and the fans on tour history, humour and numbers - the playing greats, the grudge matches, the records, and villains and tricksters. Written for children, there are sure to be plenty of adults taking a look over their shoulder at this brilliant introduction to cricket. "Incomparable really, different planet stuff. It is comprehensive without being bewildering, colourful but not showy, confident but never esoteric. It is also superbly designed." The Wisden Cricketer "Packed with information ... this is perfect for the youngsters who prefer Pietersen to Rooney." The Times "The cricketing world's bible specially written for children." The Economist

They are the masters of deception, the jokers in the pack; illusionists conjuring wickets out of thin air with nothing more than an ambled approach and a wonky grip. Not for them the brutish physicality of the pace bowler nor the reactive slogging of the batsman. Theirs is a more cerebral art. They stand alone in a team sport. They are Twirlymen. Having himself failed through a combination of injury and indolence to become a leg-spinner of renown, Amol Rajan pays homage to that most eccentric of all sporting heroes - the spin bowler. On a journey through cricket history Rajan introduces us to the greatest purveyors of that craft, from W. G. Grace to Graeme Swann via Clarrie Grimmet's flipper, Muttiah Muralitharan's helicopter wrist, Shane Warne's ball-of-the-century and all the rest.

Have you ever wondered why we talk about a handicap in sport, why boxing is so named, or whether a dumbbell ever rang? It was during the nineteenth century that hitherto local games with relaxed and varying rules were formalized. During this process terminologies developed to refer to these new standardized sports, borrowing, modifying and redefining words from all walks of life in sometimes strange and unexpected ways. Considering such subjects as why sport shares so many words with the fields of hunting and conflict, and how English sports terms have been both adopted from and given to other languages, this book looks at how words have come into the field of sport and how they have developed and changed.

Did you know that . . . a soldier's biggest social blunder is called jack brew - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for Little Brown Job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor? Susie Dent does. Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking their own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at ten-thousand feet in the air. Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.

Need an informative, and well illustrated Lab Manual? CBSE Class 11th Physical Education Lab Manual is here for you • The Lab Manual provides comprehensive steps for guiding students through each experiment. • Rigorously researched content prepared by a team of educators, writers, editors, and proofreaders. • CBSE Class XI PE Lab Manual has properly labeled, high resolution diagrams, and graphs. • A separate section on Viva Questions has been included to aid students in their Viva examination. • The Lab Manual explains the complex topics through detailed illustrations, and lucid language, making them simple to grasp. • Worksheets have been provided in CBSE Class 11th Physical Education Lab Manual for doing rough work.

asters of the art. They include Bill O’Reilly, who Sir Donald Bradman claimed to have been the greatest bowler of his experience; Clarrie Grimmett, arguably the 'father' of spin bowling in Australia; and the greatest spinner of the modern era, Shane Warne. The many other spin bowlers included in the book include Arthur Mailey, Don Blackie, Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, Jack Iverson, Richie Benaud, Jim Higgs, Tim May, Stuart MacGill and Nathan Lyon.  

Spin bowlers in cricket are masters at making the ball loop slowly through the air to confuse batsmen. Legends of the game know the magic combinations of top-spin, side-spin and off-spin necessary to fool the opposition. The Magic of Spin, dissects the various aspects of spin bowling through the stories of the bowlers themselves. In addition it includes the history and evolution of spin bowling: the wrong’un or googly was 'invented' by Bernard (BJT) Bosenquet; Grimmett 'invented' the flipper, the ball Warne in later years bowled so brilliantly; and Bill O’Reilly learned about spin bowling by watching Grimmett like a hawk in Test matches. The batsmen who have played the great spinners through the years will also help to explain the dark art of spinning.

'Spin bowling is magical and to a lot of people [a few batsmen included] a mystery.' – Ian Chappell