Jonathan Northall has written extensively about football, cricket and baseball and previously published a book about ice hockey in 2013. He has contributed to many sports websites including Fansided and FourFourTwo Australia.
Northall has combined interviews with players, officials and broadcasters to create the story of the 1992 World Cup in his book. He has explored each match along with its unique backstory and its key performers, contributing memories after more than a quarter of a century. Besides there are interviews with Brian McMillan, Gavin Larsen, Gladstone Small, Derek Pringle and Phillip DeFreitas.
In order to coordinate the massive amount of data each match would create, Ross Dundas was named the official statistician by the World Cup Committee. "Dundas collated the information from each game during the tournament, and entered the data into his database before uploading the information into Channel Nine's computers for their use. Information was also distributed to press and broadcasters."
Ross Dundas was the first cricket statistician in world cricket to begin the process of collecting and compiling the balls faced by each batsman in one day cricket to arrive at batting strikes.
Kepler Wessels, in his foreword, has remarked: "It was a privilege to lead the South African team back from the wilderness in this historic event. The South African team were a mature outfit with a lot of experience at domestic level but none in the pressure cauldron of the international arena. The team faced a daunting task, facing the best teams in the world after so many years out of the competition.
The loss to England in the much-publicised semi-final in Sydney was a major setback. Had rain not intervened, no one knows what the outcome would have been. Suffice to say that under the current Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system, South Africa would have gone through to the final. In fact, the rain rule that was applicable at the time was changed after that World Cup, and Duckworth-Lewis came into being."
Northall believes, the World Cup winners, Pakistan peaked at the right time. "The batting skills of Inzamam-ul-Haq was undeniable. Wasim Akram's devastating wicket-taking ability was phenomenal. However, it was the experience of Imran Khan and Javed Miandad that underpinned the turnaround in form. Like two virtuoso violinists, they played all the right notes. Imran's man-management skills were overt, while Miandad worked quietly at the crease, with words of encouragement, advice, suggestions and goodness knows what else. Pakistan's victory was testament to the adage, 'It is not how you start the race or where you are during the race - it is how you cross the finish line that will matter."
Contributions from fans offer a unique insight into the high emotions in the stands as the tournament was played out. Exclusive behind-the-scenes access is granted by documents from the tournament’s organising committee, including minutes from meetings and reports presented to the International Cricket Council.
The fantastic colour photo section includes iconic images and an unseen photo from the archives Ruling the World which tell the enthralling story from the early exchanges in the warm-up matches to the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Adorned with many pictures, the book is also embellished with many quotes which adds to the enjoyment. One wonders where on earth and how much research must have gone into a book of this nature.
The added attraction of the book is a complete scorecard of all 39 matches. The formatting of scorecards and compilation of statistics is excellent. Overall, this is a decent book which will remind readers of the events of the 1992 World Cup.