Adam Powley, a journalist with more than 15 books, has brought out his latest cricket book When Cricket was Cricket.

The book has nineteen chapters, including War and Peace, The Ashes, Fields of Dreams and The Wonderful Windies.

In his introductory chapter, Adam Powley has rightly asked a question, "Is there any oher sport that fits nostalgia as snugly as cricket? Arguably no other pastime has such a rich tradition of wistful reminiscence as the game of bat and ball. The cliched crack of leather upon willow, the long hot summers of a hazily remembered past, the identification of the sport with the finer aspects of a bygone age: we can all be guilty of looking at such history through rose-tinted vision, but that perception is an intrinsic part of the sport."

The book When Cricket was Cricket, according to Adam Powley, is about the wider game - a celebration of the sport's customs, oddities and curiosities, and as much a fond reflection on its homespun charm as it is a familiar roll-call of glamorous personalities and events of international renown.

Modern innovations like Twenty20 and the IPL have their place in cricket's long and glorious story, but nothing beats the original - as celebrated in this wonderfully nostalgic look at the game in bygone years.

Looking back to a heyday of long hot summers and classic matches, the book fondly recalls an era when it was a more enjoyable and carefree pastime - for the most part a sport conducted in a spirit of keen competitiveness but fair and thrilling play. Drawing on 100 years of outstanding photographs in the huge Mirrorpix archive, this book brings to life an age largely free of intrusive sponsorship and commercialism when bumper crowds swarmed to see the stars of the day in action - legends such as W.G.Grace, Don Bradman and Jack Hobbs; famous greats of the post-war era like Garry Sobers, Keith Miller and Fred Trueman; and more recent heroes such as Ian Botham, Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara.

Powley has profiled the legends of the game. Profiling Sachin Tendulkar, he says: "At the time of writing, Tendulkar is still playing at something like the peak of his powers; still racking up the mammoth scores and setting new benchmarks. For such a classically gifted batsman, he is a very modern sporting superstar - a demi-god in his native India and, for a naturally shy man, a global icon whose fame transcends his sport."

Powley believed Shane Warne was one of the most prolific, persistent and ingenious wicket-takers in the game, with 708 Test scalps succumbing to his leg breaks, drifters, flippers and assorted other deliveries that sometimes defied the laws of physics, let alone description. "Bowling, Warney!", uttered by colleagues as Warne bamboozled anoher poor victim, became part of the game's vernacular. He was just as deadly in the one-day game. And he could bat a bit - in fact he scored most Test runs (3,154 of them) without reaching a century than any other player."

A reliable reference book with most readable accounts of the various international seasons and clearly laid out & well printed, this is a useful addition to the library of the statistician/historian. The pictures which decorate many of the 208 pages, enhance the overall effect.