Roderick Easdale: The Full Monty – A cricket book review

The Full Monty by Monty Panesar and Fred Atkins is a jaunty, highly entertaining, account of the life and career of someone who was the first Sikh to play cricket for England and, for a time, the best finger spinner in the world.

It is at times off beat, hilarious, yet honest in its subject’s failings and mistakes and of his descent into mental illness.

The book positively trips along, it can be laugh-out-loud funny; other times soberly reflective – especially of the time when its subject was neither sober nor reflective – sometimes wryly humorous, elsewhere poignant.

It blends all this together most adroitly. The chapter titles give an idea of the book: Bombs in Mumbai, The Fall, Paranoia, Help, but also: Most Popular Dog Names of 2006, Can a Vegetarian Eat Blended Camel Foreskin and It’s David Graveney: Sorry Who Are You Again.

For someone who had a burning ambition to be The Greatest Spin Bowler in The World, he was remarkably naive about what this involved. He was not minded to take up the offer of a contract for Northamptonshire, as he wanted to play for England not Northants. It had to be explained to him by Northants Chief Exec how the country cricket and England structure.

“So I can play for you and England?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know that.”

When chairman of selectors David Graveney phoned him to tell he had been picked for England he had no idea who he was, and had to ask him twice who he was. When Monty had grasped who Graveney was, and was told he was selected for the tour to India the response was: “What tour to India?”

The first and last paragraphs of his introduction sum up the Full Monty perfectly:

“This is the story of an all-consuming ambition, of a glimpse of greatness preceding a descent into the dark, of paranoia, of fractured relationships, frayed friendships and one broken marriage.

I wanted to write a feel-good book and I hope you find it uplifting to read. I wanted to send out a message of love, positivity and aspiration, because although it wasn’t the life I expected to lead and things didn’t always go to plan, in the great stories they never do.”

The Full Monty by Monty Panesar and Fred Atkins is published by White Owl