For cricketers in general and all aspiring captains in particular Brearley’s Art of Captaincy is an excellent book. It covers not only those areas of the game that concern cricket captains but also throws light on various cricket issues. Above all the book confirms to cricket followers Brearley’s grasp of the subtleties of the game.

Oddly enough, what made me first aware of Brearley’s understanding of cricket was a bizarre incident that happened at Lords during a Sussex–Middlesex match a few years ago. At a tense stage in the important Benson-Hedges quarter final match, Wayne Daniels unleashed a barrage of short-pitched stuff at our tail enders, who promptly forgot about the run-chase and gave preference to physical safety. I was watching this from the non-strikers’ end and was getting incensed by the umpire’s non-intervention. The same umpire had been extremely strict with me during our fielding session in the morning. When I finally brought to his attention the ruling of persistent short-pitched bowling, Mike Brearley walked up from Mid-off and successfully provoked me into an argument with the remark that I’d tried to bowl short too but just wasn’t quick enough. The argument got heated enough for Brearley to walk up to me as if he was going to hit me. Thankfully Gatting intervened.

The result of the confrontation was that the umpire did not stop W Daniels from intimidating our batsmen with short-pitched bowling and Middlesex won the match comfortably. To this day I am convinced that Brearley carefully planned the whole row with me to put pressure on a weak and indecisive umpire at a vital stage in the match. I am sure a man of his intellect had no serious intention of hitting a man twice his size, armed with a bat and protected by a helmet, pads, thigh pad and a Box.

The Art of Captaincy makes fun reading because of the abundance of anecdotes. The examples given to illustrate his points also make the book very readable. His views are original and well-thought out. Of particular interest to me were his thoughts on short-pitched bowling. Remarkably for an opening batsman he feels that within limits a bouncer actually enriches the game. Quite rightly, he says that batting is not just a test of talent and technique but also physical courage.

His arguments for the use of helmets are sensible and practical. If a batsman protects his hands, legs and his groin then why not protect the most important part of his body – his head.

Like a university professor he takes great pains to put forward both sides of the argument. Indeed so convincingly does he argue for and against that one wonders what position to adopt. For instance in the chapter ‘Choosing a Captain’ he points out the advantages and disadvantages of picking a bowler batsman, wicket-keeper or an all-rounder for the job. After reading all the arguments I concluded that the department of the game was not relevant – it was the personality of the player that was really important. Yet strangely enough Brearley felt that unless a fast bowler had the temperament of Mike Proctor, he was unsuitable to captain the team. This was one of the few things in the book that I disagreed with – and not just because I have been a fast-bowling captain. What about the transformation that Clive Rice’s Captaincy brought to Notts; or the success in one-day cricket that Kapil Dev gave India? According to Benaud (possibly the best post-war Captain) he never played against or under a better Captain than Keith Miller; a man known for his fiery personality.

On the whole Brearley’s views are balanced and fair. For captains in all types of cricket a lot of information on and off the field can be found in the book. At what stage to declare the innings; what target to set and in how much time; off the field dealings with managers, committees, groundsmen, players’ injuries etc.

Also interesting are his frank opinions of his successors to the England captaincy: their strengths and weaknesses; Botham’s sensitivity to press criticism, Willis’s inability to control the team on the field, Gower’s poor use of his bowling attack against Pakistan at Lords in ’82.

Brearley’s views on the changes in cricket are refreshingly open-minded. He analyses the change in the attitude of the media and crowds towards the players. However, he refuses to believe that commercialism has adversely affected the attitude of the players to the game.

I was disappointed that there was no elaborate discussion in the book about the currently most topical subject in the game – umpiring. His view that an umpire should never be criticized is all very well if one’s dealings are confined to the relatively high standard of English umpires. But what happens when one is playing abroad and when a closely fought series is won by the home team, due to a few ‘umpiring mistakes’? Such mistakes are not that easy to swallow. They become even more difficult to take if one is captaining a country where a cricketing defeat is taken as a national disaster.

The slow motion replay on television has made the test captains realise that some umpires are good and some not good enough. Honest criticism can enable the good ones to stand out – something a captain’s report might not succeed in doing (since it’s not made public the home authorities do not have to worry about it).

I would like to have heard Brearley’s views on neutral umpires – a concept almost all the current test captains have endorsed. Nevertheless The Art of Captaincy remains for me the most complete book on the subject.