Opening Up
by Michael Atherton
published by Coronet 2003

Atherton has written one of the best autobiographies, possibly by any cricketer.  It is, in short, a genuine cricket book, a book about Atherton's cricket rather than the "life" of a professional sportsman. He acknowledges the weakness of the genre by leaving out most of his non-cricket related personal stuff and concentrating in the game and its personalities, but written from a highly thoughtful perspective.  As he acknowledges, he is an outsider rather than an in-crowd man and an observer.  Where better to observe the English and Test game in the 1990's than from the No.1 spot or the captaincy of England.

To some extent, he falls into the trap of self-justification, especially when explaining captaincy decisions, and there is a natural tendency to focus on big contributions rather than early downfalls, but this is to quibble: It is hugely insightful to know what captains' thought processes are (I felt the captaincy era was probably the most interesting section of the book overall); it is also important to know what goes through a batsman's mind as he gets into those big and important innings.  We all know how disappointing it is to get out for 5.

Some of the book is truly memorable: His openness about the dirt in pocket incident is fascinating as is his account of the infamous run chase against South Africa when offered a target by Cronje which carried away with it the hint of match-fixing. Yet more fascinating still is his account of his tussle with Donald after he was not given out caught behind in the 1998 Trent Bridge test; totally absorbing.

A rare autobio recommendation.

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