Top five sports books to read over the monsoons

We may be heading towards the last days of summer, and with it the final opportunity to enjoy a good book whilst lying in the English sun, but with September holidays and long commutes to work back on the agenda, there is no better time to immerse yourself in a great book about sport.

Here is a selection of the best.

5. Ed Smith – Luck

Ed Smith is not your typical cricket writer. Test Match Special’s most recent addition certainly ticks the box by having had a successful county cricket career (albeit a less fruitful International one), yet unlike the majority who frequent the Sky Sports commentary box, his columns are neither ghosted, nor rely predominantly on outlandish overstatement. He is very much from the scholarly, analytical school of journalism, which makes much sense since he holds a Double First from Cambridge University.

His book ‘Luck’, which follows his work on baseball (Playing Hard Ball), and his diary of the 2003 season (On and off the Field) is a fascinating account of what makes people successful. It is in depth yet very readable, persuasive yet balanced, and draws on a whole range of Smith’s personal experiences, as well as accounts of the rise of numerous successful sportsmen. As the title suggests, the overriding message is that the majority of success comes down to luck; yet he offers a fascinating view on the myth of hard work being the key to all success as well as challenging the idea that individuals have control over making their own luck. There are inevitably areas which provoke some disagreement, however this merely serves to strengthen the book – it begins as a work on sport yet incites the reader to consider his own life and luck.

Of the best modern works on the topic of success, Smith’s sits alongside Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and Matthew Syed’s Bounce, as the best, yet it is his personal experiences which gives the former Kent and Middlesex batsman the edge.