Writers at the wicket: 10 famous authors who played cricket

Sam Beckett won a Nobel Prize during his time

Samuel Beckett

Among the most influential writers of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett is also the only first-class cricketer to win a Nobel Prize. The ‘Waiting for Godot’ absurdist playwright excelled at cricket as a left-hand batsman and left-arm medium-pace bowler.

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Siegfried Sassoon

Until the outbreak of the First World War, Sassoon was a seasoned cricketer, captaining the Sassoon’s XI and playing respectably for Marlborough College. He aspired to play for the Kent Cricket Club and sometimes played alongside Arthur Conan Doyle. His service during the war, however, went on to make him one of the greatest war-poets ever produced. His bitter, satirical war prose strongly contradicts some of his romantic poems on the game.