The Postman who delivered The Ashes: The Life and Times of Harry Trott
by Pradip Dhole
August 2022
5’’ x 8’’
268 pp
Amazon price: £ 12.99
Buy from us: £ 10.99
‘Postman Trott’s leather bag held letters stamped with names of places which his skill as a player and gifts as a skipper would take him to see’ - Ray Robinson.
His cricketing skills and tactical acumen were admired by one and all. His own men were devoted to him. Formidable opponents such as KS Ranjitsinhji and Archie MacLaren considered him the best of captains. He seemed to possess a mental chart of the chief strokes and the strong and weak points in each opposing batsman.
Wisden lavished praise about his canny bowling changes, and later also added: ‘one is inclined to think that no Australian captain before or since, was liked so much by his opponents.’ Cheerfulness was his other trait. In his later life, he would become an imposing 16 stone, an almost Pickwickian figure of geniality, his luxuriant moustache and his cheery smile the characteristic features of the face that cricketers, friend and foe, and the public loved.
This genial soul who had traversed the pinnacle of the sporting world went on to suffer mental illness in his early thirties, was plagued by depression and buffeted by tragedy. He himself succumbed to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma the age of 51.
Pradip Dhole’s new biography of Harry Trott is now available.
”With his erudite and sensitive approach towards the distant past of cricket, Pradip Dhole earlier brought Billy Midwinter back to life. He now tells us the story of the life and times of the Postman who delivered The Ashes.” - Arunabha Sengupta