'Imagine having to face Allan Donald after being at work all morning'

Scott Oliver admits a ‘happy accident’ resulted in him becoming an award-winning author.

The former Moddershall & Oulton captain, a freelance writer since 2012, has just scooped the prestigious Wisden Book of the Year accolade.

His book, Sticky Dogs and Stardust, recounts tales of when cricket’s star players turned out in local leagues.

There are stories from leagues across the country, featuring the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Gordon Greenidge, Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards, Jacques Kallis, Garry Sobers, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Courtney Walsh, Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, VVS Laxman, AB de Villiers, Steve Waugh, Kapil Dev, Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose and Imran Tahir.

“The book was a happy accident, really. It started life as a series of standalone features, mainly for the ESPNcricinfo and Wisden websites,” said Oliver.

“Viv Richards was the first one, aided on the one hand by the brilliant Lancashire League website, and on the other by the amazing photos that were taken of Viv that day – swooping up from London in a helicopter that landed on the Rishton outfield, the hero stepping out in a trilby with a Slazenger bat tucked under his arm to be mobbed by a gaggle of starry-eyed kids and awestruck parents scarcely able to believe that the world’s most charismatic cricketer was going to be batting at number three for them that day against Haslingden. And for the rest of the season.

“After that story came another 14 or 15, at which point I thought: you know what, there’s probably a book in this. So I pitched the idea to Matt Thacker at Fairfield Books, who said yes within about 45 seconds.

“I then had to find another seven stories – well, had to whittle down a long list of candidates – to make up two ‘teams’ for the final selection.

“These new stories included Kevin Pietersen’s occasionally tempestuous season at Cannock and Garfield Sobers’ three-year stint at Norton, which was really enjoyable to research.

“More generally, the inspiration for the book was the simple knowledge of how many brilliant stories there are in club cricket, and most of my cricket writing has been an attempt to find ways to tap into those.

“With the stories from the book, the hook is obviously provided by the superstar name but quite often the most pleasurable morsels within them involve the minor characters, the supporting cast.

“There are thousands of people out there with great tales involving famous cricketers and without this sounding too much like a religious missionary, I’m trying to make sure as many as possible are committed to print.”

Oliver, who is now based in Cyprus, spent a huge amount of time flying back and forth to England for his research.

And he says that aside from looking at newspaper archives and other sources of information on the internet, it was speaking to club officials, members and players which helped to elevate the book.

“The time it takes to pull a story together can vary a lot, though. It depends how much information is readily available and how much has to be dug out. Having scorecards online is a godsend in terms of getting a basic idea of what happened, whether there’s a natural story arc there,” explained Oliver.

“Also extremely useful are online newspaper archives, which save you having to go on foot to various far-flung libraries and manually work your way through old microfilms. Such missions have taken me to Dover, Leicester, Birmingham, Kendal, Bolton, Preston, Leeds, Newcastle, Sunderland and other places – nice days out, by and large, but quite tedious work. Much easier online!

“Once you have the basic facts in place, perhaps supported by newspaper reports, it’s really then about finding good interviewees to provide the anecdotes, which is really what elevates the stories, I think.

“It’s gold dust to find someone with a vivid memory and a colourful turn of phrase. Just press ‘record’ and let them go.

“It can be hard work finding people for the older stories, though. And you do have to do a lot of pestering at times – both for contact details and sometimes for help with the facts and figures – but there’s no way around that.

“But I’m extremely grateful to the many, many fine and generous people who’ve gone beyond the call of duty to help me out.”

Research may have been the arduous part of the book, but Oliver had personal anecdotes to dip into.

He captained Imran Tahir at Moddershall & Oulton, while also facing the likes of Tino Best and Shahid Afridi in league matches.

However, he says that every story has been a rewarding process.

“Honestly, I enjoyed writing them all,” he added. “It’s easier when there’s an organically dramatic narrative arc already there – for instance, when the superstar player helps his club win its first league title or cup for 20 years, which I then just have to lay out in a relatively suspenseful way.

“But also, I like the stories when the cricketer is one of those who’d have been genuinely scary to play against.

“In this category I’d put Malcolm Marshall, who was right at the end of his first-class career when he played for Leyland. That was fascinating to dip into – an absolute A-plus cricketer who is for many people the greatest quick bowler ever to play the game.

“Wasim Akram is of a very similar stature – in some people’s all-time XI – and was not quite as close to the fag end of things as Marshall when he turned out for Smethwick in the Birmingham League, but he was still very much a handful, as borne out by one or two broken bones!

Then there’s the likes of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, both of whom played league cricket as relative youngsters. Full of beans. Not bowling too many drive balls. Tough day’s work for your average clubbie.

“But there’s also the odd story where the scary overseas pro is at the peak of the powers, most notably Allan Donald’s year at Rishton when he was 29.

“The cover photo gives the reader some idea of how full-on this would have been. I mean, can you imagine having to face that after a morning shift at the factory?! Challenging!

“But by the same token magical, if you manage to get through unscathed. Or moderately scathed, but still alive to tell the fisherman’s tale 20 years later!

“And I suppose the other stories that were really enjoyable to write, because they’re close to my heart, were the Staffordshire-based ones: KP and Wasim in the Birmingham League, but especially Sobers, Shahid Afridi and Imran Tahir in the NSSCL. In some cases, this meant asking old mates for quotes, which was a lot of fun.

“With the Imran story, the longest in the book, I was able to provide a bit more insight than in the other chapters, more of the cut-and-thrust, the emotional rollercoaster of your average league cricketer pursuing their low-key but to them all-consuming glories.”

The stories in Oliver’s book are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to top-quality players turning out in the local leagues.

The standard of overseas players may have dipped slightly in recent times, but there are plenty of stories from yesteryear still to be told.

“I think if you compare the North Staffs scene with the Lancashire League, perhaps also the old Central Lancs League, the teams around Oldham and Rochdale, it probably struggles to match the volume of top-of-the-bill names,” said Oliver.

“The Northern League – Blackpool, Preston, St Annes and so on – had its fair share of stars.

“Locally, the late 1950s and early 1960s were probably the heyday – Sonny Ramadhin, Sobers, Wes Hall, and so on – but at various points since there have been some incredible cricketers in either the NSSCL or the old District League.

“A few years ago I wrote something about all the Pakistani Test players who’d pro’d in the area, ‘Stokistan’ for ESPNcricinfo. I’m grateful to say that a lot of the top quicks were playing second and third tier: Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Tanvir Ahmed and so forth, along with spinners such as Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdur Rehman, batters such as Imran Nazir. Serious cricketers of recent vintage.

“I have no idea how many internationals have ever played in the North Staffs area, but I’ve recently chanced across stories about the likes of Steve Waugh (Nantwich), Martin Crowe (Elworth) and Roger Harper (Audley) sub-pro-ing in the leagues, so there must be many more out there.

“There are also locally legendary overseas pros such as Mo Hussain or Barrington Browne who might not be that well known in the wider cricketing world but who have plenty of great yarns attached.”

Oliver attended a dinner at cricket’s most famous ground this week to pick up his award.

He was at Lord’s to accept his accolade after topping a strong shortlist.

“It’s a massively prestigious award, a very famous brand, so obviously it kind of gives you that slightly queasy feeling in your stomach, the fluttering rush of excitement and so on,” he added.

“Then when you think about it for a while, you feel honoured by the recognition, humbled by the company you’re keeping on the list of winners, and proud that you’ve been able to produce something half-decent.”

And there could well be further awards in the offing in the future.

Oliver is already busy scribbling his next offering to bring club cricket stories to print.

“The publisher has commissioned two more on the same subject – tales of superstar overseas pros – although perhaps with a gap between the second and third. I’m supposed to finish the second one by the end of August, so am absolutely all hands on deck with that at the moment,” explained Oliver.

“There are quite a few big guns still to write about – Michael Holding, Dennis Lillee, Muralitharan, Javed Miandad, Mohammad Yousuf, Lance Gibbs, Rohan Kanhai, Chris Cairns, Andy Flower, Allan Border, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and so on – but also a handful with a local angle.

“I’m writing about Rangana Herath’s half-season at Moddershall. This is a personal story about trying to put on a brave face as a captain when everything else away from cricket is dragging you under the waves.

“There’s a chapter on Roy Gilchrist, the bad boy tearaway Jamaican quick who played at Great Chell, which will be one segment in that story.

“There’s the Sydney Barnes, maybe the greatest pro of all – not an overseas, of course, but I’m happy to bend the rules – and Simon Ellams has been very helpful, lending me the old Porthill Park minute books to try to find clues about how big a celebrity he was. The Burslem v Porthill matches back then look pretty tasty!

“And there’s the two years when Ashcombe Park’s Mohammad Asif, who should have become an all-time great, faced off with Endon’s Morne Morkel. I have some cracking yarns already in for this one.”

Anthony McGowan, Wisden’s reviewer for the award said Oliver’s passion shone through.

He wrote: “The book has a fund of astonishing stories, which would have remained untold without Scott Oliver’s labours.

“Oliver clearly has a profound understanding of and love for the local game, and has done a magnificent job researching and recovering these stories, delving into mildewed scorebooks, interviewing team-mates and opponents.”

· You can buy your copy direct from Fairfield Books and get 10 per cent off the cover price when you use coupon code STICKY10 at the checkout.