The Plan: How Fletcher and Flower Transformed English Cricket

The inside story of the England cricket team's quest to become the number one Test nation in the world; Cricket Book of the Year 2012

The most insightful cricket book of the year

An excellent book and courageous in the way it revisits and interrogates the opinions of the moment, including the author's own, in light of subsequent developments. As well as knowledge there is a rare warmth and sympathy to his portraits of men who are probably easier to respect than truly to know. The Plan is rich in unfamiliar detail and even the sideways glances are penetrating. The cricket points are well made, the personal judgements astute. Like his subjects James has made a good plan and stuck to it

Fine detail... a persuasive account of the renaissance of English cricket, and no one is better qualified to tell it. [Steve James] has become a member of an influential new British school of cricket writing

James' quiet excellence, uncomplicated style and informed perspective make his Sunday column a "don't miss". The Plan is more of the same... Compelling

A hugely enjoyable and engrossing read... highly recommended

Unrivalled insight and captivating analysis... James has peerless knowledge of Fletcher and Flower - he argues his view brilliantly

Steve James is cricket columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and a sports writer for the Daily Telegraph. 
 
He read Classics at Swansea University before becoming a postgraduate at Cambridge, where he won a Blue in the side captained by Mike Atherton. He played his county cricket with Glamorgan for eighteen years, scoring nearly 16,000 runs at an average of over 40, and captaining them for three seasons, winning a National League trophy in 2002, before retiring due to injury. 
 
In 1997 James helped Glamorgan to win the County Championship for the first time in nearly thirty years and was named the Professional Cricketers Association Player of the Year. He still holds the record for highest score by a Glamorgan batsman (309 not out against Sussex at Colwyn Bay in 2000) and also won two caps for England.

In 1999, England slumped to a new low in their tumultuous cricket history. Defeat at home by a mediocre New Zealand team saw them fall to the bottom of the world Test rankings, below even Zimbabwe. Yet only just over a decade later, England reached the top. It was a remarkable and profound transformation, brought about largely by two men with an insatiable desire to succeed, Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower. 
 
In The Plan, Steve James tells the story of the renaissance of English cricket from a unique perspective. As the former batting partner of ECB managing director Hugh Morris, a player under Fletcher at Glamorgan and Flower's closest confidant in the press corps, James is the perfect analyst of this period in cricket history. From crucial choices of captain to innovative coaching and a complete overhaul of training and preparation for matches, it is the tale of a refusal to be second best. 
 
And in examining Fletcher and Flower's background in Zimbabwe, where James himself played, he uncovers the continental shift behind the turnaround. It is the story of how English steel was melded with African fire to create the most potent combination in world cricket.

Steve James

Combines anecdote and insight drawn from personal experience into a fine book on the art of batsmanship.

A beguiling insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life as a batsman.

I love the way Steve James writes about cricket, his endless curiosity and generosity. The Art of Centuries distils a lifetime's wisdom, joy and frustration - a three-figure literary innings.

A delight... It is always fun to read Steve's work. His previous book The Plan was a terrific breakdown of how Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower took England to the top during their time as head coach. This new book has a nice, light, often discursive touch to it, and I like discursive, that delightful pathway into digression where one memory prompts another.

Leave a copy in the England dressing room.

A century has always had a special resonance, in all walks of life, and none more so than in cricket. Scoring one hundred runs is the ultimate for a batsman. As former England captain Andrew Strauss admits, it's incredibly hard to do; for Ricky Ponting, it's a transformational moment in the career of a cricketer. Or in the words of Geoffrey Boycott, 'a century has its own magic'. 
 
In The Art of Centuries, Steve James applies his award-winning forensic insight to the very heart of batting. Through interviews with the leading run-scorers in cricket history and his own experiences, Steve discovers what mental and physical efforts are required to reach those magical three figures. Despite his own haul of 47 first-class tons, he himself felt at times that he was poorly equipped for the task. 
 
So working out how to score centuries is an art. And bowlers might not agree, but there really is no better feeling in cricket.

The Art of Centuries

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Steve James

Praise for The Art of Centuries

Combines anecdote and insight drawn from personal experience into a fine book on the art of batsmanship.

A beguiling insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life as a batsman.

I love the way Steve James writes about cricket, his endless curiosity and generosity. The Art of Centuries distils a lifetime's wisdom, joy and frustration - a three-figure literary innings.

Combines anecdote and insight drawn from personal experience into a fine book on the art of batsmanship.

A beguiling insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life as a batsman.

I love the way Steve James writes about cricket, his endless curiosity and generosity. The Art of Centuries distils a lifetime's wisdom, joy and frustration - a three-figure literary innings.

Combines anecdote and insight drawn from personal experience into a fine book on the art of batsmanship.

A beguiling insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life as a batsman.

I love the way Steve James writes about cricket, his endless curiosity and generosity. The Art of Centuries distils a lifetime's wisdom, joy and frustration - a three-figure literary innings.

Books by Steve James

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