The Reverend James Pycroft chiefly known for writing The Cricket Field, one of the earliest books about cricket, published in 1851. Pycroft presented cricket as a noble, manly and essentially British activity. He favourably compared the virtues of Victorian cricket with the disgraceful state of play at the turn of the century when “Lord’s was frequented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative propensities”. He wrote a number of other books on religion and Oxford University.
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