Hitting Against the Spin: How Cricket Really Works

I learned so many new ways to think about cricket from this book and appreciate the game even more. Also a great lesson about cricket and life - to go against conventional wisdom is hard and if it goes wrong, you are open to ridicule and rebuke.

Very heavy going but worth it.

I've been reading this with our 11 year old son and he loves it. It is written in an easy, conversational tone, drawing repeatedly on popular moments in sport. However, it is packed with hard data. It will deepen your understanding and answer or illuminate some of the most arcane questions in cricket. A thoroughly enjoyable read, I highly recommend this for aspiring cricketers and fans of the game.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book as a cricket fan and it revealed so much about the game that I hadn't even noticed or even considered. Unlike a lot of data writing in football, which can be patronising and dismissive of other elements of the game, this book made clear from the outset that data isn't necessarily the gospel, albeit its importance in cricket is growing.

Just finished this book and I found it a very easy read which simultaneously gave me lots of new ideas and information about a game I have followed closely for 30 years. Not an easy feat to achieve! If you are a cricket fan who wants a better understanding of the sport this is a must read.

Interesting but less eye-opening than I was expecting.

As a non-cricketer, I was suprised to be enthralled by this fascinating insight into modern cricket. It is very well written and engaged my attention from start to finish

This is an amazing data driven insight into cricket. Providing stats to debunk or prove assumptions is hugely insightful. You come away knowing so much more about the game. However, the propensity for male-centric language is unacceptable in this day and age. Pronouns are always “him” and there are very, very few comparisons made with any female sports at all. At a time when women’s cricket is becoming increasingly popular, I would urge the authors to make the pronouns in this book gender neutral, and also to draw insights from the women’s game as well as the men’s game.

Interesting

Good facts

Oversimplifying a bit - the book is about analytics in the game and how data helps identify certain trends that the naked eye misses. The book makes you look at cricket in ways most laymen wouldn't have looked at and has facts and stats that might stun you. It is insightful in its truest sense. You might be surprised to also know how big a role data is already playing in decision making in cricket. A must read for obsessive cricket lovers

Fascinating insights into the wonderful game of cricket we all love. Recommended to anyone who ever wondered if long held beliefs in cricket, like hitting with the spin, are really correct and true.

I really wanted to like this book--to read about how one could use basic numeracy skills to get a deeper understanding of cricket, and explode some myths (or at least question some received wisdom) about the game. But the argument in the first chapter on "how to win a world cup" was a pretty ordinary qualitative one--I kept waiting for the data that would redeem it. Leamon may be entirely correct, and he may even be legitimately entitled to claim a little of the credit for England's victory in 2019. But as you read the book it becomes increasingly clear that Leamon is not a great analyst--he has much more in common with the innumerate fools. He has never read Tufte, for one thing, and tends to draw big graphs to present tiny little bits of data--I don't have space in this review to explain how silly his graphics are. But what finally made me put down the book was his claim (on page 41) that 11.1 is "nearly three times" 4.6. Since when is 2.4 nearly 3? And do you really want to read a book of data analysis by someone so lacking in basic number sense? No, you don't. Read the new Crickonomics book instead.