The Twelfth Man 2018

31 Crazy: My Road to Redemption: Chris Lewis. Published by the History Press. RRP £20 I bought this book as I was going to listen him speak at the Sheffield Cricket Lovers Society earlier this year and wanted to read what he had to say about his colourful life and career. Clairmonte Christopher Lewis is an English former cricketer, who played for Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey and in the 1980’s and 1990s. He played in thirty-two Tests and fifty-three ODIs for England from 1990 to 1998. Lewis’s revelations of a match-fixing scandal, leaked to a less-than-sympathetic tabloid, helped bring his career to an inglorious and premature termination. Attempts to revive it, some years later, at the onset of the T20 format to which he would have been ideally suited at his peak, proved to be a spectacular failure and served as a catalyst for the decline which reached its nadir in 2009 with his conviction for drug smuggling. I read the book twice as sometimes, one can get a better understanding of the contents. The opening paragraph, to me is quite powerful as the way it is written makes you feel as if you are with Chris Lewis in the airport as he tries to bring in illegal drugs in his belongings. You are stood there with him, beginning to panic and realise that he is going to be found out and the misery it brings to him and his family. He blames no one but himself for this turn of events and expects no pity. Chris accepts that he has had to pay for his misdemeanours and that the cricketing public don’t offer him any pity. I asked him about the opening chapter and he said it was the idea of his co-writer. It certainly has an impact on the reader. He said: “I realised I had to do “My porridge” and expect to have my freedom taken for several years.” He thanks the support of his family, the PCA especially Jason Ratcliffe who visited him in prison regularly. He also explains the Sun headline “Prat without a hat” and explains why sunburn caused him to miss a Test in the Caribbean. I will let the reader look that up!! Chris also speaks about his peers and how he felt, at times, they resented and were envious of his lifestyle and salary and one time someone left a wage slip of his open in the changing room for all to see. Currently, he is working with the PCA, speaking around the country using his own example of his own failings to help support any young cricketer about to embark on a professional career. I thoroughly recommend this book to any cricket follower. Ali Saad