Product Description

Before his resignation in April 2007, Duncan Fletcher had been the most successful England cricket coach of the modern era. In the glorious summer of 2005 Fletcher's management and coaching skills reached their apogee, as England regained the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1985. Widely acclaimed as the greatest Test series in the history of the game, this five-match contest thrilled the nation with its extraordinary swings of fortune. It was a personal triumph for Fletcher, and the high point of his tenure as England coach. One of the most experienced and senior figures in the game, Fletcher now looks back over his life and career as he ponders his next step. What was it that drove him from a sporty and competitive Rhodesian farming family to the heights of international cricket? What lessons has he drawn from his successful business career in forging a winning team? Full of telling insights and frank assessments of the players and administrators he has had the pleasure and pain of working alongside, Behind the Shades is the riveting and revelatory autobiography of the man who put the pride back into the England cricket team.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58010 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Honest
A few of the newspaper reviews of this book suggested it was little more than a self-pitying whinge.

It turned out, however, to be an interesting take on the inside track of modern international sport and those who run and play it.

Since Duncan Fletcher was the coach of the first England team to win the Ashes for the best part of 20 years and was still the coach when the team rather meekly surrendered them a couple of years later, the book necessarily spends a lot of time discussing those two series. He does, however, map the changes in the game during his lifetime, to interesting and insightful effect.

While Fletcher does, as one might expect of a coach, go into some detail about technical aspects of the game (when and how certain shots should be played and certain deliveries should be bowled), I suspect the most interesting parts of the book for most readers will be those where he shines a light on some of the game's heroes, sung and unsung, both on and off the field. His opinions can be strident and he clearly has something of an axe to grind with some aspects of the administration of cricket and with certain individuals; however, the measured, even restrained, tone adopted makes for an interesting and thought-provoking read.

Better than expected
OK, first I should admit that I am a big fan of Duncan Fletcher the coach. He took English cricket from its lowest low and brought success unseen since the days of Trueman and Statham. I also admired Fletcher the man. He stood up to the Aussies and the media and wasn't afraid to make himself unpopular as long as he had the support of his team.

However, when the book was serialised in the English press, it seemed that Fletcher was, through this autobiography, acting in a way that was out of character from the man that had been running the English cricket team so skillfully. Players that had sweated blood for him - Hoggard, for example - seemed to be receiving untold criticism. Fletcher was always big on loyalty, but here he seemed to be being disloyal.

Despite this, I figured it must be worth a read, and on the whole, it is. Fletcher's analysing of the game, the way he looks for bite in his players (hence the preference of Jones to Read) and the way he can see how players use angles and the 'low crouch' (which helped him spot the otherwise-ignored potential of Vaughan, Trescothick and Strauss) are great to read if you're a cricket fan, but probably dull if you're not. On the whole, the book is for the cricket purist; if you want a cricket autobiography that entertains beyond the world of cricket then seek out the more feted books of Simon Hughes, Nasser Hussain and Mike Brearley.

The book isn't as full of vitriol as the media clippings suggest. With the curious exception of Matthew Hoggard, Fletcher is loyal to those that had been loyal to him. The book does its fair share of score settling. Geoffrey Boycott, Henry Blofeld, Ian Botham and a handful of others get it with both barrels. But as they'd spent eight years or so making a living out of criticising Fletcher, he has his right of reply.

On the whole, the press it received on its release didn't do Behind the Shades justice. Fletcher is refreshingly honest throughout the autobiography, and for anyone that has followed English cricket over the past decade or so I would recommend this book. Love him or hate him, Fletcher transformed English cricket, and his approach to cricket - gone through in detail here - shows why English sport could do with more of his ilk.

Lot of fuss over a dull and bitter book
I bought this expecting a lively and revealing read. Instead, it was a protracted exercise in settling old scores. Time and again Fletcher reports, 'and he said afterwards that he realised I had been right all along' or 'I was the best coach he'd ever had'.
For someone who has achieved so much it was embarrassing. All the revelations about Flintoff or Trescothick have been discussed by now so I don't see any reason to buy this.