Mike Colman

Looking back over history, Australian Aboriginals have dominated sport in a way that belies their relatively small percentage of the Australian population. Much of this achievement and many of the sportsmen and women who did the achieving has been forgotten by mainstream Australia and the names of the heroes reduced to invisibility.

Eddie Gilbert, the fast bowler from Queensland, is one such example. The authors of "Eddie Gilbert" point out that at his peak, Gilbert was probably the most photographed sportsman in Australia. He dismissed Bradman for a duck and surely must have been in the national selectors' minds during the Bodyline Ashes series against England.

These days he is gaining a renaissance with a statue of Gilbert erected in Brisbane but for years he became a forgotten man of Australian cricket. This book, amongst others, has helped Gilbert regain the limelight forty years after his lonely death.

"Eddie Gilbert" traces his life from young firebrand bowler to national cricketing sensation to his decline. Interesting stuff but, as the writers acknowledge in their "Authors' notes", there was a battle between the authors on the way the book would be written. It shows. The book tends to weave between journalistic sensationalism and PhD style dry prose and so loses a star from its ratings but otherwise I recommend checking out "Eddie Gilbert".… (mer)