PATRICK MURPHY
Patrick
Murphy
has written more than forty books on cricket and football, among them
biographies of Ian Botham and Brian Clough, a history of village cricket and The
Spinners’ Turn, a lament for the neglected art of spin bowling. Over the
last thirty years he has co-authored books with many cricketers, among them Bob
Willis, Basil D’Oliveira, Bob Taylor, Mike Procter, Viv Richards, Wasim Akram,
Imran Khan, Allan Donald, Graeme Hick, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart and Andrew
Flintoff.
He
has been BBC Radio’s Midlands sports correspondent for almost thirty years and
has covered 16
The Centurions
is his third stab at the subject of those who have scored a hundred centuries in
first-class cricket. He wrote the book originally in 1983 when there was just
twenty, then updated it in 1987 when Dennis Amiss made it 21. Now, with the
addition of Viv Richards, Graham Gooch, Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash, the
number stands at 25 – and there it will remain, in his opinion. ‘They just
don’t play enough first-class cricket anymore. Nobody will join this list.’
Patrick
Murphy lives in Worcestershire, playing village green cricket devotedly but
haplessly, unashamedly dragging his team-mates down to his level.