Franklyn Stephenson

While he never played for the West Indies, Franklyn Stephenson was, at his peak, undeniably one of the best all rounders in international cricket. The reason Stephenson never played for the West Indies was due to him throwing his lot in with the Rebel West Indian tour to Apartheid era South Africa for buckets of money. To say the tour was controversial is an understatement, so I thought much of the point of My Song Shall Be Cricket would be Stephenson putting forth his reasons for touring South Africa.

Oddly, Stephenson spends little time on defending his choice (broadly, it's "I needed the money") but does talk about how much he and his team mates thoroughly enjoyed their time in South Africa, even if he didn't get on with some of the squad (Colin Croft and Emerson Trotmann get short shrift). Primarily, My Song Shall Be Cricket is a conventional cricket autobiography, covering his early, poverty stricken life, his cricketing career, his growing family and his golfing career. There's nothing outstanding here but Stephenson comes across as the type of person you could happily spend some time with.… (meer)