Sports
Science fiction and cricket? How about a genre crossover?
But no! The knife in question turns out not to be made of steel, but of willow, and the Bonaventure in question is an inquisitive young man named Clyde St Joseph Bonaventure who works at a computer science institute in London by day, but is secretly busy with a side mission.
Working on his company’s 2mn computer, he feeds it cricket statistics. But not the usual batting and bowling averages. These are data collected from instrumented bats and speedometer-equipped balls, fed into the computer in the hope that it will generate a program that will help even the most hopeless team win cricket matches.
Science fiction and cricket? Surely the subgenre to end all subgenres. But back to our intrepid programmer, whose team the Bonaventures thrillingly punish a superior side to herald the advent of a brave new world of computer cricket. Here’s a scene from a match that, in retrospect, seems remarkably prophetic:
'Peter and Simon were greeted with cheers, jeers and jeers as the crowd saw them in new style pads and tailcoats, not unlike a Robin Hood doublet. The same bubble cloth, coloured belt and badge, with a coloured choker round the neck – to conceal a throat microphone. Also a tiny receiver set was worn in each batsman's ear, but invisible to all but those who knew where to look.'
What follows is a liberal helping of Cold War shenanigans, with our hero being kidnapped by dastardly corporations, double agents and even two Soviet agents intent on introducing cricket to Russia. But fear not. It turns out that our protagonist has a formidable uncle who will step up to the plate when it counts – none other than the Right Excellent Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, aka Gary Sobers, the undisputed GOAT of world cricket. The previous year, 1966, West Indies had toured England in the summer to play a 5-Test series. Captaining the team, Sobers scored three monstrous hundreds, including one at Lord’s in which he teamed with David Holford in one of the most legendary back-line partnerships. But cricket wasn’t the only thing the famously versatile Sobers was up to. In 1965, Pelham Books had published Sobers’ first book, Cricket, Advance! In the summer of 1966, the same company brought out its Cricket Crusader. And the following year, making it the third in a row, came Bonaventure and the Flashing Blade, with Gary Sobers's name on the cover. Was Sobers really writing a sci-fi novel about cricket? Or was he simply lending his name to the work of an unsung bungler? In 2001, sports writer Will Buckley went to interview Sobers, armed with a copy of the extremely rare first edition. (At the time of writing, a copy was not for sale anywhere on the Internet.) “Sir Gary, shrinking back, looks at the dust jacket as if it were a photograph of Alan Knott in his underwear,” Buckley wrote.
It turned out to be the first time Sir Gary had actually seen a copy of the book, but afterwards he said: 'I think I've read it.' We know, of course, what happened in a parallel universe: a year later, encouraged by the success of computer cricket, Clyde St Joseph Bonaventure walked into the stadium with his magic bat and smashed six sixes into the air.
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Sources 2/ https://m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/science-fiction-and-cricket-howzat-for-a-genre-bender/articleshow/112431777.cms The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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