First XI

These short stories emerge from years of travelling to watch cricket around the world. Six, the first story Bob Cattell wrote, set in Afghanistan, was inspired by seeing the refugee camps in Pakistan and written to support the charity Afghan Connection. Other stories owe their origins to true events, such as the robbery in Barbados retold in Bat. But most are pure fiction - a streaker at Lord’s, the funeral of an old native Australian cricketer, a murder in Auckland. They are linked together by the world of cricket and projected with pace, guile and a hint of spin.