"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
No holding back
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Michael Holding, Orion, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 2011. ISBN 978-1-4091-2116-9
This is the autobiography of a great bowler who has stayed in the game as a TV commentator. The first surprise is that becoming a test player was never a dream for him:
“You often hear professional sportsmen say ‘This is a dream come true’ when they achieve recognition, but when I was young I didn’t dream about playing cricket for Jamaica and I certainly didn’t lie in bed at night and hope that I would one day bowl fast for West Indies. Nor did I look at players who were representing Jamaica or West Indies and think ‘I want to be just like him’. It was never a goal of mine to play at the highest level of a sport that I thought of as just a hobby”.
His love was just playing cricket. His reaction to his first selection to tour with the West Indies was negative – he would be away for Christmas! He did not enjoy the tour experience much either first time. But he learned there an important lesson: “It made me realise that it wasn’t all about me. It was about West Indies and the West Indies team... Sometimes you see some people playing and you know just by watching them that they reckon it’s all about them and not the country they play for. I was so pleased that I was made aware of the importance of the team at an early stage”.
In his youth, his was a religious household where everyone went to church every Sunday. However there are no other references to any personal faith. Interestingly he does argue for more batsmen to walk when they know they are out.
He is positive about Kerry Packer and the change of cricket culture, making it more professional with better remuneration for players – even of his first encounter with a fitness trainer was a shock to the system.
At times the book is inevitably an account of this match and that match but Mikie is not slow to express opinions. He devotes an entire chapter to Allan Stanford and cricket’s stupidity in not seeing through him. Stanford is wonderfully summed up: “no amount of money can buy class”.
He also castigates the ICC for their failure to run cricket properly – although his recommendation that ICC should look at FIFA and how football is run and learn from it may seem unfortunate in view of recent developments!
Well worth reading.