Timothy Abraham

It was with a tinge of sadness that I read Evita burned down our pavilion; so many examples of cricket once playing a key role in countries throughout South and Central America but now been reduced to the margins, if that.

Abraham and Coyne roadtrip the region, from Mexico to Patagonia, reciting the rich history of cricket in each country, its unexpected connections to world history and the state of the game today. The history of cricket in South and Central America is one of British expats arriving at a location, creating cricket clubs, which were usually the bastion of society, and actively worked to exclude everyone else from cricket. This included not just the West Indians brought over to perform the backbreaking manual labour that drove the British Empire, but any locals that showed an interest.

There's also plenty of passages attesting to cricket's one time prominence in the Americas; obviously Evita Peron burning down the Buenos Aires Cricket Club's pavilion but also a photo of the doomed Emperor of Mexico, Maximillian I wearing pad, the fact that Pablo Escobar's illegitimate son became a decent club cricketer in England, or that Pope Francis has a cricket bat in his Vatican office.

Evita burned down our pavilion could have been 5 stars but this is still one of the best books I have read this year and whether you are a cricket tragic, or a fan of social history that doesn't usually feature in the official histories of Latin America, you will find much of interest here.… (meer)