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Reviewed by Michael Goulder
Dan Christian – The All-Rounder
Dan Christian with Gideon Haigh. Harper Collins. Paperback. £16.99.
This book takes the form of a daily diary starting on the 5th April 2021 as Dan prepares for an IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore and ends on 29th January 2022 as Dan ends up as a beaten BBL finalist as his injury-ravaged Sydney Sixers side lose by 79 runs to Perth Scorchers at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. It provides an excellent description of life as a T20 hired gun in the times of Covid as Dan has to spend countless days in isolation in hotel rooms. His travels take in cricket in Australia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the West Indies, the UAE and briefly England. He also managed visits to the Maldives, Bahrain, Italy and Portugal. All this while his partner Jorgia is expecting their first child, their daughter Harper being born in Sydney by caesarean section in December in between two BBL games.
Dan clearly has an enormous affection for Notts “great club, great people, great ground” but his time in the UK is reduced to two preparatory T20 Second Eleven fixtures for Notts at Grantham and Old Trafford as he receives a surprise call-up by Australia to play in white-ball series in the West Indies and Bangladesh, his first international games in four years. This involves Christian rushing back to Australia and missing the 2021 Vitality Blast. Before he departs, he recommends to Notts that Alex Hales should take over as captain - "tactically he’s really, really good”.
Although his time at Notts was truncated, Dan still keeps track of Notts Outlaws progress from afar watching the live streams from his hotel room. We hear that he recommends Calvin Harrison to his great friend Simon Katich, coach of the Manchester Originals in the inaugural Hundred competition. “I was really impressed; he’s quick through the air and has a good wrong ‘un, which makes him perfect for T20”. Christian, a ten-time franchise tournament winner often asserts in his diary entries that “Old blokes win s***!”, meaning that experience counts in T20 cricket. This may well often be true, although those who followed Notts in the 2022 Vitality Blast competition might question his opinion on that topic.
The book, ghost written by well-respected Australia journalist Gideon Haigh, could have been better proof read; Notts won the T20 Blast at Edgbaston not the Oval and Carlos Brathwaite’s rapid 44 was at Trent Bridge not Edgbaston. The book, though is highly recommended and provides a vivid insight to the attention to detail that goes into T20 cricket.
Dan Christian with Gideon Haigh. Harper Collins. Paperback. £16.99.
This book takes the form of a daily diary starting on the 5th April 2021 as Dan prepares for an IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore and ends on 29th January 2022 as Dan ends up as a beaten BBL finalist as his injury-ravaged Sydney Sixers side lose by 79 runs to Perth Scorchers at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. It provides an excellent description of life as a T20 hired gun in the times of Covid as Dan has to spend countless days in isolation in hotel rooms. His travels take in cricket in Australia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the West Indies, the UAE and briefly England. He also managed visits to the Maldives, Bahrain, Italy and Portugal. All this while his partner Jorgia is expecting their first child, their daughter Harper being born in Sydney by caesarean section in December in between two BBL games.
Dan clearly has an enormous affection for Notts “great club, great people, great ground” but his time in the UK is reduced to two preparatory T20 Second Eleven fixtures for Notts at Grantham and Old Trafford as he receives a surprise call-up by Australia to play in white-ball series in the West Indies and Bangladesh, his first international games in four years. This involves Christian rushing back to Australia and missing the 2021 Vitality Blast. Before he departs, he recommends to Notts that Alex Hales should take over as captain - "tactically he’s really, really good”.
Although his time at Notts was truncated, Dan still keeps track of Notts Outlaws progress from afar watching the live streams from his hotel room. We hear that he recommends Calvin Harrison to his great friend Simon Katich, coach of the Manchester Originals in the inaugural Hundred competition. “I was really impressed; he’s quick through the air and has a good wrong ‘un, which makes him perfect for T20”. Christian, a ten-time franchise tournament winner often asserts in his diary entries that “Old blokes win s***!”, meaning that experience counts in T20 cricket. This may well often be true, although those who followed Notts in the 2022 Vitality Blast competition might question his opinion on that topic.
The book, ghost written by well-respected Australia journalist Gideon Haigh, could have been better proof read; Notts won the T20 Blast at Edgbaston not the Oval and Carlos Brathwaite’s rapid 44 was at Trent Bridge not Edgbaston. The book, though is highly recommended and provides a vivid insight to the attention to detail that goes into T20 cricket.
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