For close to five decades, British-Caribbean poet John Agard has been revolutionising poetry in Britain with his brand of unexpected, satirical, mischievous verses that bounce a home truth or two and force the conscience to go for a stroke. Winner of multiple prizes for his work – Casa de las Américas, Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry, the Guyana Prize for Literature(twice), the Cholmondeley Award, the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award – he has forever been enchanted by cricket. The game has flitted rather frequently through his works, with plenty of double bite and reverse swing.

Here for the first time is a compilation of his cricket poetry. Laced with his love the game, they carry his characteristic trickster wit and often venture beyond de boundary into uncomfortable border zones.

The book has introduction and commentary by Arunabha Sengupta (author of Elephant in the Stadium and Apartheid: A Point to Cover) and an afterword by David Woodhouse (author of Who Only Cricket Know)