MANY PEOPLE, MOST of them without knowing it, have contributed to this book but some deserve explicit thanks. My editor Tristan Jones helped cook up the idea and gently encouraged me to play my natural game. Jim Gill, my agent, was a reassuring source of sensible advice. Mike Peel lent me the priceless perspective of a fellow cricket nut; Tori Brown’s eye was rarely less than aquiline. At various points, Andrew Miller, Altus Momberg, S. Rajesh, Siddhartha Vaidyananthan, Richard Boock and David Frith all helped out in one way or another, and I’m grateful to Jeremy Snape for waxing lyrical in his front room about the psychology of cricket (see Chapter 4). Thanks, too, to mum and dad for never once putting pressure on me to get a proper job: without their lack of discouragement, this book would never have appeared. And without a splendid effort by the whole team at Yellow Jersey Press it would not look as sharp as it does. Any prejudices that remain are entirely my own.