Writers at the wicket: 10 famous authors who played cricket

Virginia Woolf had a love for the sport that was far ahead of her time

Virginia Woolf

A pioneer of modernism, Virginia Woolf grew up playing the game. Along with her sister Vanessa and brother Adrian, cricket played an important role in her youth. She once said, ’Vanessa and I were what we call tomboys; that is, we played cricket, scrambled over rocks, climbed trees, were said not to care for clothes and so on.” In an age where cricket was heavily gender-biased, Woolf’s love for the sport was encouraging.

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Harold Pinter

Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, Pinter was a cricket obsessive, taking his bat with him when evacuated during the Blitz. He was chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club, putting more energy into running the team than into almost anything else. He once remarked, "I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing God ever created on earth”

From the world of writing to the world at the wicket, here’s to a long-standing and entertaining partnership between the two.