Mark Browning reviews The first ball after Lunch, John Benaud’s nostalgic trip back to 1973…

Beautifully produced in an admittedly expensive limited edition, John Benaud’s ‘The First Ball After Lunch’ is a cricket connoisseur’s delight.

At first impression it is an unusual cricket book.

There is a running concept that each chapter is a course in a meal.

Whether this is necessary beyond just being very different is a matter of opinion.

The cover shot of a dinner plate with a cricket ball on it reminded me of the inner sleeve from Warren Zevon’s 1976 album Excitable Boy famous for the hit ‘Werewolves of London’. There, instead of a  cricket ball on the dinner plate there is a handgun with veggies.

And the whole idea really only serves as a diversion from the totally engaging text.

The younger brother of Richie by 14 years, John was a lesser cricketer but in the estimation of many the best writer in the family.

Ironically ‘baby John’ did finish with a higher Test batting average and lower bowling average than his more famous 14 years older, big brother.

The main course, about two thirds of the book, is John Benaud’s account of his cricketing trip of a lifetime to the West Indies in 1973 with Ian Chappell’s side.

Overcoming personnel setbacks they won the series against the odds 2-0. Central to ultimate success, a final day burst in the field to secure a victory that looked to be slipping away in the 3rd Test in Trinidad.

The turning point, a wicket, first ball after lunch… a wide warm-up  ball from Max Walker which somehow was ticked behind.

Benaud brings the character of players on both sides and the delights and otherwise of touring the Caribbean sixty years ago to vivid life.

It is all done with a wry smile and a wink that is engaging and amusing and very, very easy to read, especially as the book is barely 140 pages long.

Also sprinkled with crystal clear contemporary Patrick Eagar photos the reader will be taken back to a time when life and cricket were simpler, but international cricketers were paid very little.

Two key Australian players from the period, Ashley Mallett and Paul Sheahan, were unavailable for the tour purely for financial and employment reasons.

Benaud, himself, retired from first-class cricket at tour end at the age of 29.

John Benaud uses that undeniable inequity to justify the heroes of the 1973 tour signing for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket.

That then segues over the final pages into a lament for the direction of the game in 2025.

Although good points are made there, too, some comments just sound like a grumpy old man speaking out against modern values.

It was a reminder that John Benaud is now over eighty years old and that cricket, the good and the bad, has moved on a long way from the 1970’s.

This gets an A rating from me.