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This is one of the 100 character pen-sketches by Mayukh Ghosh compiled in the recently released book In a League of Their Own, published by Flying Turtle and Cricmash
NEVILLE CARDUS
The 1929 Headingley Test seemed to be hopelessly one-sided at the end of two days.
Neville Cardus left the scene to pursue an affair somewhere close to London.
He didn't watch any play on the third day and discovered the amazing turnaround from the evening papers.
He quickly went to National Liberal Club and composed the match report for the day.
He later described it as one of his best efforts at describing a day's play.
That's what he did so well.
Even Alan Gibson never tried to watch much of the cricket during the day at a ground, but he never bothered to describe the day's play either.
Although he did write beautiful match reports.
In 1985, Andrew Lamb (quite a well-known music historian and occasional cricket writer) revealed in Wisden Cricket Monthly that Cardus was not born on 2 April 1889 but on 3 April 1888.
Three years later, editor David Frith wrote an article to mark Cardus' birth centenary. In that, he recalled the Lamb article and commented that Cardus' autobiography deserved a much better and more appropriate title.
According to him, the autobiography should have been called Unreliable Memoirs—the title of Clive James' autobiography.
No one can deny the fact that Neville Cardus played a huge role in making cricket a popular summer game in England. It was he who helped so many get attracted towards cricket literature. Rather unfortunately, however, not many of them bothered to check what they read. Even with the aid of internet, not many are inclined to verify what had been written by Sir Neville.
Many have tried to set the record straight in the last 30-odd years, but with an appalling success rate.
But, as David Frith hopes (or fears), Christopher O'Brien's new book on Cardus may well shatter his image for all time.
Here's celebrating the man whose cricket writing was all about 'the untruth, the higher truth, and a bit of the truth…'