The Grade Cricketer: Alphas, Champs and Chop Kings
The unwritten rules of clubland
Will be published approx. on 4. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-76106-810-2 (ISBN)
Description
'Brilliantly funny and unnervingly real, in Alphas, Champs and Chop Kings, Sam and Ian capture club cricket culture to perfection.' - Adam Gilchrist
After wasting several years becoming a worldwide sports comedy phenomenon, The Grade Cricketer is back to deliver another sharp, hilarious and often risque critique of the game. Full of side-splitting humour, it's a brilliant skewering of sporting masculinity and cricket culture, channelling the raucous energy of Sam Perry and Ian Higgins' hit podcast, TV, radio and live shows.
A hallowed, suspicious-smelling manual, Alphas, Champs and Chop Kings is an induction to grade cricket handed down through generations of cricketers who weren't quite good enough to play professionally.
Outrageous, ridiculous and sadly completely true, it's the handbook you should not give to any aspiring young cricketer.
'An affectionately satiric journey into the absurdist world of clubland.' - Sydney Morning Herald
Praise for The Grade Cricketer:
'The Grade Cricketer nails it for anyone who's ever donned a pair of whites. Underneath all the laughs, he's just saying what we're all thinking. I actually find it hard to believe he's a fictional character ...' - Merv Hughes
'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks!' - Tom Keneally
'The Grade Cricketer has taken us so far inside a district club dressing room that you feel like a locker. Ligaments could not be closer to the bone than some of his observations.' - Kerry O'Keeffe
'The Grade Cricketer is strange and, I suspect, brilliant'. - Wisden
After wasting several years becoming a worldwide sports comedy phenomenon, The Grade Cricketer is back to deliver another sharp, hilarious and often risque critique of the game. Full of side-splitting humour, it's a brilliant skewering of sporting masculinity and cricket culture, channelling the raucous energy of Sam Perry and Ian Higgins' hit podcast, TV, radio and live shows.
A hallowed, suspicious-smelling manual, Alphas, Champs and Chop Kings is an induction to grade cricket handed down through generations of cricketers who weren't quite good enough to play professionally.
Outrageous, ridiculous and sadly completely true, it's the handbook you should not give to any aspiring young cricketer.
'An affectionately satiric journey into the absurdist world of clubland.' - Sydney Morning Herald
Praise for The Grade Cricketer:
'The Grade Cricketer nails it for anyone who's ever donned a pair of whites. Underneath all the laughs, he's just saying what we're all thinking. I actually find it hard to believe he's a fictional character ...' - Merv Hughes
'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks!' - Tom Keneally
'The Grade Cricketer has taken us so far inside a district club dressing room that you feel like a locker. Ligaments could not be closer to the bone than some of his observations.' - Kerry O'Keeffe
'The Grade Cricketer is strange and, I suspect, brilliant'. - Wisden
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Sydney
Australia
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Weight
294 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-76106-810-2 (9781761068102)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
As wide-eyed juniors, Sam Perry and Ian Higgins both dreamed of playing cricket for Australia one day. That was before they entered the harsh, dog-eat-dog world of Australian grade cricket, where their hopes and dreams were swiftly extinguished; their cricketing careers subsequently laid to rest. As a form of catharsis, 'The Grade Cricketer' was born: a desperate, delusional 'everyman' who thousands of middling amateur athletes can relate to, even if they refuse to admit it publicly. Now with over 1 million followers @thegradecricketer is their satirical take on cricket across the globe.