Full Circle: A History of Cricket Author: Richard Heller and Peter OborneISBN-13: 978-1783969449Publisher: Elliott and ThompsonGuideline Price: £25Playwright Harold Pinter famously described cricket as the greatest thing that God created on Earth. Certainly, it is, along with the English language, the most enduring and valued legacy of England’s imperial grandeur.Expressions such as “it’s not cricket” and “playing a straight bat” entered the language. They were symbolic of the English image of themselves as a fair, honest and decent people.This well-researched book traces the game from its beginnings in the south of England in the early 18th century, patronised by landowners as an occasion for gambling, to its present prominent position in the sporting life of most of the countries of the old British Empire – but not the United States, where baseball holds sway. India, whose cricket is largely financed by venture capitalists through television rights, now attracts the world’s best players to its league with rich rewards on offer. By so doing it has become the dominant country in the cricketing world. Others are following its lead, commercialising the game. This development prompts the authors to pose the question whether cricket now makes money to exist or exists to make money. The book discusses the politics of cricket as well as its star players and memorable matches. It chronicles battles against social elitism, racism, and the exclusion of women that have been fought in the cricket world and go on to this day. Co-author Peter Oborne, a celebrated British journalist and the son of a former military attache at the British embassy in Dublin, has for 40 years been bringing a team to play in Ireland. The book includes a chapter entitled The Uniqueness of Irish Cricket, summarising its history here, applauding its survival in a hostile climate, and its recent revival, unsung in our media, with our All-Ireland team defeating England on one occasion and qualifying to play Test cricket, the highest level of the game.The authors do not hide their preference for the old-fashioned game exemplified by Test matches, played over three to five days, over the shorter forms, fitted into a single day or even an afternoon. Yet, they venture the advice that the Irish team might do better to stick to the shorter forms, which are more viable financially, and where they would be better able to hold their own.