The Story ... So Far

A trip to the city last weekend brought about a trip to a certain respectable book store, during which my mind simply wasn't on the task; I was thinking about cricket. To be precise I was thinking about how it is that England have gone from Australia Conquering Heroes to being rated 5th in the test rankings, just 3 points above 6th, in the space of 3 years. That's less time than it took Boycott to craft another century.

This thought was in mind whilst I looked at the Sports section. I looked down past the autobiographies of Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, and on to Alistair Cook: My Story So Far. Considering his story so far leaves him at 25 and would set you back £12.99 I'd feel a little more that short changed. Monty Panesar also tells of 'My Story So Far,' and so the problem became more apparent. So far half the current team have spent time writing their stories, all so far.

The mention to Boycott wasn't simply a needless critique. He took so long to score because he was so obsessed with runs. His autobiography didn't come out until he was 47. Instead he spent his time working on his game, but this isn't supposed to be a big up Boycott post, instead an asking of the question: What exactly have Cook and Panesar done to feel their stories are worth telling so far? What have they achieved?

With Matthew Hayden retiring (no autobiography yet, just two cookbooks) perhaps we should look across the water to compare outlooks. When we beat Australia we gave out MBEs, OBEs, tours around Downing Street, and many many alkaseltzers. When Australia beat us 5-0 there was just the hangover cures. It was another victory, another step on the way. For us it was the destination.