Almanac Book Launch: ‘The HAS-BEENS and NEVER-WILL-BEs …’ – Megan Ponsford

 

 

 

You are invited to the launch of Megan Ponsford’s new cricket book

 

‘The HAS-BEENS and NEVER-WILL-BEs:A Boy’s Own Adventure of Australian Cricket and the Raj’

11 November 2022

 6 Oxford Street, Collingwood

6 – 8pm

 

 

As the official Australian cricket XI departs for India this year, few players would have any notion of the first-ever Australian cricket tour of India eighty-seven years ago, nor how that seminal and fascinating tour was largely ignored, falling into obscurity, until a chance discovery in 2004.

 

Despite the modest reputation of Indian cricket at the time, fifteen Australian cricketers, with Jack Ryder as the captain and Charlie Macartney as his deputy, embarked on a groundbreaking journey, encouraged by adventure, but also the significant pay packet provided by the deep pockets of the flamboyant Maharaja of Patiala.

 

From the palaces of the Raj to the foothills of the Himalayas, the evolving social consciousness of the ragtag team of Australia cricketers defines the tour. The deeply conservative cricket establishment was challenged as the tour broke cultural, racial and sporting codes that were intrinsic to the then-amateur game. Some of the cricketers were lured out of retirement and encouraged to participate in the 1935-36 tour despite opposition from cricket officialdom. Others were young up-and-comers with potential, including the author’s great-uncle (and brother in-law of famous batsman Bill Ponsford), Tom Leather, who thought the tour may propel his career and that the adventure would be fun.

 

When Ponsford commenced work at the Melbourne Cricket Club in 2004, she discovered a long-lost box of ephemera that belonging to her deceased great-uncle Leather. This resulted in close to two decades of research across the Commonwealth and was propelled by a firm belief that this mysterious story was culturally significant and desperately needed to be told. Much more than just a tour book, The Has-Beens and Never-Will-Bes gathers and interprets the material culture located in the archives of the Australian and Indian cricketers and includes over eighty previously unearthed images. In the absence of first-hand accounts, these artefacts enable insight into the forgotten tour and overlooked sportspeople who are finally given the voice and posthumous credit they deserve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2004, Megan Ponsford’s career as a documentary photographer took a sharp turn when she located a box of long forgotten archives whilst working at the Melbourne Cricket Club. This led to researching the first Australian cricket tour to India in 1935-36 which combined her greatest passions: sport, photography, cultural history, travel, the subcontinent and family. Megan completed her PhD in 2016 and has published extensively as a writer and photographer. Her next research project is on The Great Gama, a wrestler and strongman sponsored by the Maharaja of Patiala, who was undefeated throughout a fifty-two year career.

 

The Has-Beens and Never-Will-Bes:

A Boy’s Own Adventure of Australian Cricket and the Raj

Publication date: 26.09.2022 | ISBN: 978-94-92203-15-1 | RRP: $29.25

The book can be purchased Here

 

“Megan Ponsford has spent a decade following the historical traces of the long-forgotten tour of 1935-36 and recreating its world.

At last, in her excellent book, we have a literary testament to that great cricketing coup.”

 

Gideon Haigh

 

 

 

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