Inside the line at HQ

American newspapers like the New York Times go to vast lengths to avoid corrupt or biased book reviews. If you personally know the book's author, publisher or subjects, you are barred from reviewing it. If the same rules applied in England, Wisden at Lord's would not have ended up in the hands of a Middlesex batsman who plays home games at Lord's and is writing a review, as you can see, for The Wisden Cricketer.

So perhaps I should start on a negative note, just to demonstrate my even-handedness. I doubt anyone will read every word of Wisden at Lord's. The book is a collection of short extracts which appeared in Wisden about famous matches at Lord's dating from 1864 to 2004. It is a coffee-table book, designed for browsing rather than reading straight through. Each reader will settle on different extracts depending on age and interests.

England v Australia, Gentlemen v Players, Eton v Harrow, Varsity matches, World Cups, county cricket and cup finals: a lot has happened in 150 years at Lord's. Skilfully edited by Graeme Wright, Wisden at Lord's gives a clear sense of cricket's enduring appeal and ever-changing social backdrop.

But it is the personal touches that are most memorable. A young Rupert Brooke was bowled for 0 playing for Marlborough against Rugby in 1906. Nine years later, enough time for him to write some beautiful poems, he died in World War I.

There are some tense near misses. Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan - icons of cricketing and political rivals India and Pakistan - were nearly involved in a run-out in the 1987 MCC v Rest of the World fixture. Imran turned down a suicidal second but Gavaskar regained his ground - and half of Asia could breathe easily again.

Wisden identified Mike Brearley's big-match temperament when he scored a hundred before keeping wicket in the 1962 Varsity match. It was the following year in the Test against West Indies there that Colin Cowdrey, having retired hurt with a broken arm, returned with nine wickets down, six runs to win and two balls to go to secure a thrilling draw with David Allen. Earlier, when Don Bradman made a century against the Gentlemen in 1948 he became the first overseas player to pass 2,000 runs in each of his four visits to England. And later, in 1990, Kapil Dev chose the positive approach to saving the follow-on by hitting Eddie Hemmings's offspin for four successive straight sixes pictured below. I doubt if that was in the coach's game plan. Next ball, with the deficit at 199, his partner was out.

There are eccentric diversions as well as heroic deeds. In 1884, the Smokers lost to the Non-Smokers - a fixture that might be replayed to decide whether modern day pubs and restaurants should ban smoking. No less amusingly, when Middlesex used a 10th bowler in a dead match against Nottinghamshire in 2003, his figures were omitted from the electronic scoreboard. A note at the top of the screen explained: "Sorry Nashy - no more room".

During the same game, in an incident which must have been revisited to great amusement in the England team last winter, Andrew Strauss earned his maiden first-class wicket when he surprised Kevin Pietersen with a slower ball. The surprise is that anyone thought he had a quicker one.

That was my personal reading of Wisden at Lord's. I have mentioned three cricketers I have played alongside recently and seven others whom I admired as a fan. Now that is a perfectly unbiased book review.