Walcott; Clyde

"Sixty Years on the Back Foot" includes some interesting moments but Walcott seems unable to finish a sentence on the same subject he started it on. With a professional sports reporter having signed on to assist Walcott, one would have thought that the book would have been at least slightly more coherent but perhaps the ghost was overawed by Walcott.

Aside from his mental wanderings, Walcott takes us on a journey from his youth in Bridgetown, Barbados to his cricketing travels around the world, including to Enfield in Lancashire, where he played in the famous Lancashire League, and to his time as manager of the West Indian team, where he tells us that Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien had drinking problems.

My favourite moment came when he recalled (probably through gritted teeth) that his uncle, a Test umpire, once gave Walcott out lbw for 98 in a Test match. Walcott said he didn't agree with the decision but doesn't mention whether he sent his uncle a christmas card that year.… (meer)