Cricket is undergoing its most radical upheaval since the Packer Revolution of the late 1970s. Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League seen as a short cut to riches by both players and administrators threaten the future of Test cricket; the County Championship the traditional—but increasingly moribund—nursery for Englands Test players struggles to reinvent itself; technology is eroding the authority of umpires. The age-old weave of the game is being slowly unpicked and rearranged for the modern global age. 2009 may even be the last summer of cricket as we know it.  Against this backdrop Duncan Hamilton embarks on an elegiac odyssey in which he aims to capture the spirit and atmosphere of English cricket before its character is irrevocably altered. The stopping-points of his journey—and the framework on which he hangs his thoughts and observations—are 14 significant cricket matches played over the course of the 2009 season: from an Ashes Test match to a game of village cricket from a brash Twenty20 encounter attended by thousands to a sleepy county game watched by five pensioners and a dog. He not only explores such issues as the future of the County Championship and the financial pressures faced by the wider game but also creates vivid sketches of players umpires administrators and the people who pay (and even suffer) to watch cricket. Combining reportage anecdote biography history and personal recollection The Greatest Game is an honest and passionate reflection on crickets past present and future. A memorable and acutely observed portrait of one summer of cricket from an award-winning sports writer who has watched—and loved—cricket since he was a boy it is essential reading for anyone who cares about the English game.