The Tour, written by Simon Wilde, has won the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award 2024.
Simon’s thematic history of England’s cricket tours since 1877 triumphed at the annual awards ceremony in the Long Room at Lord’s.
Books about Bazball and England’s white ball cricket revolution were also on the shortlist, as well as a biography of Frank Worrell, for the first time a cricketing play, and a look at international stars playing league cricket.
Simon said of the The Tour: “I’d done a history of the England team previously and when I was doing that book, I realised there was a lot of stuff I was overlooking - what you do on a tour when you’re not playing Australia in a Test match, many weeks of warm-up games and weeks when you go up country.
"A tour was about more than a few international matches, it was a whole adventure"
Chair of Judges Robert Winder said: “How lucky we are to have authors who can describe this changing world of cricket for us. These are six splendid books.”
The Stephen Fay Award 2024 was also made, posthumously, to Tony Cozier for his services to cricket writing and commentary and accepted on the family’s behalf by Vic Marks.
The competition, run by the Cricket Society since 1970 and in partnership with MCC since 2009, is for books nominated by MCC and Cricket Society Members, and is highly regarded by writers and publishers.
The 2023 winner was An Island’s Eleven, The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket by Nicholas Brookes.
The six books on the 2024 shortlist were:
Son of Grace, Frank Worrell A Biography, Vaneisa Baksh, Fairfield Books
Bazball, The Inside Story of a Test Cricket Revolution, Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult, Bloomsbury (picture below)
Stumped, Shomit Dutta, Concord Theatricals
Sticky Dogs and Stardust, When the Legends Played in the Leagues, Scott Oliver, Fairfield Books
White Hot, The Inside Story of England Cricket’s Double World Champions, Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller, Bloomsbury
The Tour: The Story of the England Cricket Team Overseas 1877-2022, Simon Wilde, Simon and Schuster
Other books considered for the shortlist included:
How to be a Cricket Fan: A Life in 50 Artefacts from WG to Wisden, Matthew Appleby, Pitch
Disappearing World, Our 18 First-Class Cricket Counties, Scyld Berry, Pitch
Turning Over the Pebbles, Mike Brearley, Constable
Broadly Speaking, Stuart Broad, Hodder and Stoughton
Legacy, My Autobiography, Nick Compton, Allen and Unwin
From Darkness into Light, John Broom and Anthony Condon, Pitch
Footprints, David Foot’s Lifetime of Writing, Stephen Chalke, Charlcombe Books/ Fairfield Books
Balls to Fly, Ricky Ellcock, An Autobiography, Fairfield Books
Cambridge Sport in Fenner’s Hands, Nigel Fenner, self-published by Cambridge Sports Tours
Ashes 2023, A Cricket Classic, Gideon Haigh, Scribe Publications
All-India and Down Under, Peace, Partition and the Game of Cricket, Richard Knott, Pitch
No Picnic, The Historic First MCC Tour of India and Ceylon 1926-27, Jeremy Lonsdale, ACS Publications
Gilly: The Turbulent Life of Roy Gilchrist, Mark Peel, Pitch
Yorkshire Grit: The Life of Ray Illingworth, Mark Peel, Pitch
David Warner, Daring to be Different, Ken Piesse, Wilkinson Publishing
The Last Corinthian, The Cricketing Life of MJK Smith, Mike Thompson, Pitch
One Day at a Time, The History of Limited Overs Cricket in 25 Matches, David Tossell, Fairfield Books