The shortlist for the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award 2025 has been announced today.
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.
Biographies of West Indian Frank Worrell and England’s Brian Close are included on the shortlist, as well as an account of two late 19th century touring teams of women cricketers.
Two books look at contrasting Ashes fortunes in England in 1926 and in Australia in 1974-75. An account of cricket and its cricketers in England immediately after World War Two completes the list.
All six books and authors will be celebrated, and the winner announced, at the annual awards evening at Lord’s on Monday 14 April.
Chair of judges Robert Winder said: “I have never known a year where so many books had strong claims to be short listed. A second set of books would have graced any other year. Some excellent volumes and prestigious writers have been extremely and undeservedly unlucky.”
The 2024 winner was The Tour: The Story of the England Cricket Team Overseas 1877-2022, by Simon Wilde, published by Simon and Schuster
The six books on the 2025 shortlist are:
Striking Summer, How cricket united a divided nation, Stephen Brenkley, Fairfield Books
One Hell of a Life, Brian Close, Daring, defiant and daft, Stephen Chalke, Fairfield Books
Worrell, The brief but brilliant life of a Caribbean pioneer, Simon Lister, Simon & Schuster
The Cricketers of 1945: Rising from the ashes of World War Two, Christopher Sandford, Pitch Publishing
Blood on the Tracks, England in Australia, The 1974-75 Ashes, David Tossell, Fairfield Books
Forgotten Pioneers, The story of the original English lady cricketers, Giles Wilcock, Pitch Publishing
Other books on the final long list were:
Batting for Time, The fight to keep English cricket alive, Ben Bloom, Pitch Publishing
Echoing Greens, How cricket shaped the English imagination, Brendan Cooper, Constable
Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes, The story of an Ashes classic, David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts, Bloomsbury
Lara, The England Chronicles, Brian Lara with Phil Walker, Fairfield Books
An Unusual Celebrity, The many cricketing lives of Bill Bowes, Jeremy Lonsdale, Pitch Publishing
Clyde Walcott, Statesman of West Indies cricket, Peter Mason, Manchester University Press
Bill Edrich, The Many Lives of England’s Cricket Great, Leo McKinstry, Bloomsbury Sport