Good Sport

Games can take several days, with tea breaks at four o’clock, and the lexicon, with terms such as “square leg” and “gully,” make its field positions sound more like pirate slang than sport talk. And yet the appeal of this distant cousin to American baseball—white outfits, green lawns, team camaraderie—endures, as evidenced by the picturesque, action-filled photographs in Daniel Melamud’s new book, This is Cricket. Shots include several from Patrick Eagar—“a master if not the master of the lens and a genius at catching the moment,” writes former England cricket captain David Gower in the foreword to the book—and chronicle all aspects of the sport: “A sponsor’s tent, a fabulous cold buffet, potent glasses of Pimm’s and the afternoon took care of itself,” Gower recalls of a day spent on and (mostly) off the field due to intermittent rain. He adds, “If these many gorgeous images don’t bring a smile to your face, I’m afraid you’re probably not human.”