Booking a ‘Baggy Green’

By Brad Kingsbury
CRICKET has been among the great passions of prolific Pakenham author Ian Ferguson’s life for more than 50 years, and his love of the game was the incentive for his latest book Wearing the Baggy Green.
Ferguson, who is also the media officer for the West Gippsland Cricket Association, painstakingly researched every player to take the field for Australia in a Test match, to produce a unique, 130year history of the game.
The players are listed in order of selection, from Charles Bannerman who was the first Australian representative in 1877, to young South Australian Daniel Cullen, who was player number 397 to be presented with the baggy green cap before his one and only Test to date, against Bangladesh in 2006.
The book is put together in chronological order and broken into significant eras, including the Birth of the Ashes, the Bradman era, the 1977 Cricket Revolution (World Series Cricket) and Chappell’s challenge.
Ferguson imparts many little known and interesting facts about many stars of Australian cricket and his unique style and ability to tell the story is enhanced by a section of match results from every Test match played against England to the start of the current series.
The book, published by Brolga Publishing, was launched recently at a function in Melbourne attended by former Australian Test player Lindsay Kline.
It has been released this week in time for Christmas and is available in most bookshops.