Sometimes I forgot to laugh - A book review

Peter Roebuck was a Somerset opener and captain. He currently writes for Sidney Morning Herald and The Hindu. Recently, I had the good fortune of reading his autobiography, 'Sometimes I forgot to laugh'. It provides really good insights into the life of a professional cricketer. People generally believe that professional sportsmen would be the happiest people on the face of the earth, enjoying themselves to the fullest by doing what most people only aspire to do, being on a first name basis with many celebrities and enjoying the camaraderie which should be a part of team sports. Roebuck disabuses the reader of these notions and presents the life of a professional sportsman(in this case a moderately successful one) in its nakedness.

He was selected as part of Somerset team in 1974. Somerset, a not so fashionable English county back then, had decided to invest in youth and as a result had selected many six youngsters in its team. Along with Roebuck, there were two other youngsters who were going to become household names in all cricket playing nations. One was a young all rounder from Yeovil named Ian Botham and another was a batsman in his early 20s from a neglected West Indian island Antigua. His name was Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards. The book deals with Roebuck's relationship with these two towering giants of cricket.

Cricket is a cruel game. It is often said that cricket reveals character. But it can also be argued that cricket makes character. Sometimes I forgot to laugh is an excellent character sketch of many of the well known names of the game.

It also makes the point that at the end of the day playing cricket is just another job. Just like any other job, people do get bored playing the game. And it has its own share of office politics. Roebuck deals with the politics part in the chapter The Somerset Affair. As a captain of Somerset, Roebuck had to sack three of the best players(Richards, Botham and Joel Garner) Somerset had after they had finished at the bottom of the table. The backlash from the public and the bad blood between Botham and Roebuck which resulted is typical of affairs in any other profession. As an example consider Larry Ellison's firing of Terry Garnett, his trusted Vice President at Oracle.

I will end this post by quoting from the book a few lines about Steve Waugh.
"Whereas Richards had been a performer and Crowe a stylist, Waugh was a competitor. By his reckoning, a bloke was there to score runs and take wickets, and all else was tomfoolery....Waugh was sustained by an inner drive that was rarely revealed, pushed along by an unwavering commitment to winning"

Most of the autobiographies of former players is filled with just anecdotes and their escapades. Thank God for autobiographies like this which give real insight into a player's mind.