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Even now the sight of it brings a Proustian rush. The full-colour cover with its title in three decks of acid-yellow type: The Barry Richards Story, those magical words followed by - as if anyone would require further incentive to purchase - with a foreword by Colin Cowdrey.Most writers will tell you about their favourite books, about how at the age of 12 they were sailing through Ulysses or digging David Foster Wallace or producing reverent imitations of Murakami for their English homework. I never believe them. My favourite book when I was 12 was The Barry Richards Story. I read it so often, I remember passages from it, and my favourite picture from the plate section - of Barry offering Gordon Greenidge a strip of chewing gum while they were standing in the slips - had me fervently imagining that one day Id be standing there next to the great man myself. Quite often Id reach the end of the appendix (BA Richards Career Analysis by Victor H. Isaacs & Peter A. Sichel) and turn immediately back to chapter one (Reflections of an Exile) to start again.My Richards obsession had taken full hold when, in 1977, the summer before the books publication, he had played a benefit match at my club, Fleet CC, and scored an indelible (or more likely for him, instantly forgotten) 60-odd, an innings that seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, but that lives still in the memory, sweet and bitter, transient and sad.In all of the times that I read the book as a kid, it never occurred to me that Richards might not have actually written it. Or perhaps not actually read it. (Although I sensed he probably hadnt read it as often as I had, and that was okay. He was Barry Richards. I just wanted to be.) After all, there it was in black and white on the title page: The Barry Richards Story by Barry Richards. It was only many years later, pulling it out of the box in which it had remained throughout the three-year period Id spent living in Australia, that I saw and absorbed the note on the following page: I should like to thank Martin Tyler for his help in writing this book and the enthusiasm he brought to the task - B.A.R.I should like to thank…That mannered phrase is an indicator of time and tide. The Barry Richards Story is a traditional autobiography from the era of traditional autobiography, a story told in what we would recognise as the language of autobiography, a kind of standard authorial voice; modest, measured, never too revealing, never too damning. I would read many more cricketers autobiographies that used the same tone, almost as if their careers demanded to be viewed through that filter.The big autobiographies of this English winter are very different to The Barry Richards Story. First, theres the matter of size. In 1978, books took up less space. Pull any 60s or 70s paperback from the shelves of a second-hand shop and youll be confronted by a tight, tiny typeface crammed onto the page, the book itself easily able to slide into a jacket pocket. The Barry Richards Story, published by Faber and Faber, is a hardback of not much more than paperback size, and retailed for a princely ￡3.99. Jonathan Trotts Unguarded and Ben Stokes Firestarter are behemoths by comparison, twice the heft and four times the price. Their covers are not action pictures but carefully commissioned studio portraits. It is as hard to imagine Stokes book being called The Ben Stokes Story as it is Richards being named after a Prodigy song.Unguarded and Firestarter are particular types of autobiography: sub-strains, genre spin-offs. Trotts is a kind of confessional, a state-of-mind book that talks with candour about the anxiety that brought his international career to an end. Stokes is a newer phenomenon still, an autobiography by someone whose career has barely started. Its title, its cover image leave little doubt that it is aimed at the young - or at least the younger - Stokes fan. It is the cricketer as rock star.Each demands a particular tone. Trott has worked with George Dobell, ESPNcricinfos senior correspondent, who has proven to be one of crickets most empathetic writers, in tune with the age. Like Trott he is a Warwickshire man, and his writing career has more or less spanned Trotts England one. Stokes was entrusted to Richard Gibson, perhaps the most widely read cricket author in the country. His name may not adorn the covers, but if you have read David Lloyds bestselling The World According to Bumble or Last in the Tin Bath, Graeme Swanns The Breaks Are Off, James Andersons Jimmy: My Story, or Joe Roots Bringing the Ashes Home, then you have read Gibson. For publishers investing considerable sums in such books, the right ghost is more than a comforting presence; its a key commercial decision.Matt Phillips was the editorial director of Yellow Jersey, the giant Random House groups literary sports imprint, before moving to Blink Publishing to head a new sports division. He understands the perils of the marketplace. For me, for any sports autobiography, I am looking for a big name with an interesting story thats well told, he says. A failure on any of those terms will probably mean that the book will not be a commercial success.The big name is not expected to understand the requirements and niceties of the publisher that has just cut their agent a sizeable cheque. They may even be wondering why a fair few percentage points of that cheque (typically between 10% and 30%) is finding its way into the pocket of the pale and uninteresting sap who spends their days behind a Dictaphone or at a keyboard. A publisher will be quick to impress the importance of the ghost once a deal is done.A good ghost needs to be a good listener, quick to bond with people and gain their trust, brave enough to ask difficult questions but open enough to receive difficult answers, says Phillips. They need to be rigorous, punctual, and have a good sense of the story - where the drama is, how to get interesting nuggets from people who may be unused to questioning what they do.Stylistically, I like it when the ghost captures the voice of the star - but I think that the tone of a book should be much more considered, intimate and polished than a standard interview. For some projects its good to have a writer with no ego, happy to drop into the background, and on others its best when the writer is more central and apparent.Gibson was thinking of quitting his job as a cricket writer for the Press Association when David Lloyd asked him if hed be interested in collaborating on a book. He leapt into the unknown.It was as simple as, Lets put a back cover and a front cover on it and see where we go, Gibson remembers. Make it as madcap as he is. But then you realise that having something with no structure needs some sort of control...The World According to Bumble begins with a list of Lloyds 50 Favourite Things (favourite album: Imperial Wax Solvent by The Fall) before a very funny opening chapter about all of the people hes been mistaken for (Tony Blair, Alan Titchmarsh, one of the Proclaimers, Duncan Fletcher, Paul Arlott, Darrell Hair, Bruce Yardley, Mike Brearley, Tony Greig, and - admittedly during a phone interview - Clive Lloyd).We gave HarperCollins half of the book, says Gibson, and they said, We really like what youre doing. Weve just signed up Graeme Swann, would you be interested in working with him?Such was Englands and Swanns popularity as they won the Ashes in Australia and became the top-ranked Test team, the deal was gazumped by another publisher, Hodder and Stoughton. It got quite messy, says Gibson, but Swann said he wanted me to stay on the project, so it went ahead.Gibsons second career was launched.Jimmy Anderson phoned me and said, I know youre ghosting Swanny, but I thought youd be the one to do my book. Wed always been pals, so I said, Yeah, of course. I knew Joe Root vaguely. Id toured the world with England for ten years, and I live in Leeds, so he knew who I was. Same thing with Stokes. I got to know him through Anderson and Root really.Gibson has spent much of the last five years as a ghost to these cricketers, teasing out their stories over the kitchen table or in spare hours at games or training. Each book contains probably a days worth of talking - as in 24 hours (and imagine how much someone can say if they speak for 24 hours; thats a lot of words and a lot of transcribing).So what is the secret?The number one is to establish the voice. This is why I say to them: You have to tell me everything, because these words have to be 100% yours. They cannot be mine. The voice comes out naturally if you are faithful to those sessions. The first thing you have to do as the ghost is [to remove] the self, the ego. There cannot be anything of you.Voice is easier to establish when the subject has a deeply familiar one, like Lloyd, or Geoffrey Boycott. Nick Hoult ghosts Boycotts Daily Telegraph column and did his most recent autobiography, The Corridor Of Certainty.If you cannot capture Geoffreys voice then you should not be a ghost. Hoult says. He is a total professional who respects the journalistic skills a ghost can bring but ultimately knows it is his responsibility to produce the copy.The Corridor Of Certainty also told the story of one of the most harrowing periods of Boycotts life, when he almost died from throat cancer.He was very clear that he wanted to go into great personal detail about his cancer treatment and had prepared extensive notes before each session, says Hoult. For those chapters his wife Rachael was heavily involved. Geoffrey did not remember all the details because he was so sick at the time. Rachael added a lot of information about the treatments he had, his battle with the doctors to give him dairy-free liquidised food, and the evening when he was nearly killed by an accidental morphine overdose. I think at times it was difficult for both of them to go over what was obviously a very painful period in their lives.The ghost must walk such lines with delicacy.Sports publishing has become more confessional. It has followed a trend begun by reality TV stars, who have been proven to possess the kind of commercial catnip to seemingly publish an autobiography a year, scantily filled with matey tittle-tattle and tearful retelling of the latest pregnancy or divorce. Hence Stuart Broad, at 30, has published three (including one immortally titled My World in Cricket) and Root and Stokes were in print at 24 and 25 respectively. Gibson agrees there are differences with mid-career books, and with players who have had a lifetime of media training in order to say nothing controversial.The first two sittings with Joe and Ben were, I wouldnt say worthless, but they were exercises to establish the trust, to realise that youre not being interviewed, youre chatting as mates, says Gibson. Its an interesting question. They wouldnt necessarily want to do a book at the point at which theyre asked, but if theyre asked Would you like X-thousand pounds to do a book? theyre pretty unlikely to say no.But once engaged in a project, I say to them to give me everything. Every question I ask, you tell me the answer honestly. If that answer does not sit comfortably with you at a later date, then it doesnt remain in the book, but I cant add things in. I can only take things out. At the end of their career theyve got a lot less to risk. After all theyre talking about people that they play with and players that they are going to play against in the future. They have to be selective in what they say.At the heart of every successful piece of ghosting is the writer-subject relationship. Back in 2000, Saad Shafqat wasnt a writer at all - he was a neurologist. He was also a devoted fan of Javed Miandad and wanted to read his autobiography. The only problem was, Miandad hadnt published one, so Shafqat decided to do something about it. After qualifying in the US he moved to Karachi, where a remarkable relationship began remarkably: I began hunting for Javeds telephone number. Luckily a family contact had known him in Sharjah, and this gentleman came through. I remember dialling the number with my heart pounding and throat dry. The conversation did not go well. I hadnt published anything and he had never heard of me. He dismissed the idea outright.The path cleared only when Shafqats wife suggested writing a sample chapter and approaching Miandads wife with it.Javed has married into one of Pakistans wealthiest families; he was living in Lahore at the time, at an address that is a local landmark. I flew to Lahore and rang the bell at 1 Canal Bank Road. Javed was touring New Zealand as the national coach but Tahira Miandad was home. She was kind enough to call me in and we had a convivial chat. She kept the chapter and told me she will be in touch. Leave it to me, I remember her saying.A few weeks after that, I got a call from Javed. He was visiting his mother in Karachi and asked if we could meet. I dropped everything and rushed over, buying a cake along the way. When he came to the doorway, I handed him the cake and complimented him on his unforgettable 114 at Georgetown - something I had dreamed of doing for years. Javed took the cake and gave me a strange look. Come inside, he said. And with that the project began. As it progressed, our friendship developed. He became very amiable towards me and started calling me his little brother.Yet telling the story of a figure so central to his countrys sporting history brought a responsibility that perhaps a more seasoned writer may have blanched at.Javed has been a polarising figure, within Pakistan as well as outside, and this book was going to be the first proper articulation of his side of things. I was very conscious that his authentic voice must come through, says Shafqat.I would pose the questions to him, and to an extent directed the interviews, but beyond that I was careful not to introduce any spin of my own. I certainly left nothing out. Javeds is a quintessentially Pakistani story, and as a Pakistan fan I wanted to do justice to it.I can clearly remember where I was when I became a ghost. I was standing in the frozen-foods aisle in Morrisons. The phone went and it was my friend Charlie Campbell, a literary agent. What do you reckon about Simon Jones? he said. I knew hed taken Simon on as a client and from somewhere - and who knows where these things come from - an almost fully formed idea dropped into my head. We could do it as five chapters about the five Ashes Tests in 2005, and then put five other chapters in between them about the rest of his life…A week or so later, I was pitching the idea to Simon. It wasnt entirely one way. The decision on how to tell his story and who to was his, but I knew the approach I was planning would need him to be able to remember and express exactly what it was like to be in the middle of the intensity of a Test match, to be able to put across the small details that no one who wasnt playing would ever know about. He described the first morning of the first Test, what it was like to walk through the Long Room, how Rudi Koertzen had told him off for not appealing when he got Damien Martyn out with his first ball; small details about how it felt and sounded that only he could have known and articulated. I knew then that the idea would work.I wrote a proposal and Charlie got us a deal (with Matt Phillips, then at Yellow Jersey) and we had just over two months to get the book done so that it could be published in the summer of 2015, ten years on from that glorious series. Simon and I met once a week for ten weeks, for between two and four hours each time. He had a friend at the Celtic Manor golf course near Cardiff, so we got to spend each session in the Ryder Cup clubhouse, in front of the fire. Before the first session I asked Simon to watch the DVD of the series, but when he turned up he said it was in his dads loft and he couldnt get hold of it. Instead he had a commemorative book, mainly of photos, that hed been looking at. When I tried to berate him about being underprepared, he smiled the little smile Id get used to, and I saw a glimpse of the tough single-mindedness of the international sportsman.I neednt have worried. Once we began talking, the memories flooded through him. He had wanted to be utterly honest about the realities of a cricket career wrecked by injury, and he was - remembering the financial worries and his desperation in signing a pay-as-you-play contract even as his knee swelled and wouldnt stop swelling.When I sat down to write, like Gibson and Hoult and Shafqat, I felt that odd sensation of inhabiting someone elses life and trying to express it not in my voice but in theirs. There is a greater responsibility than in just writing your own stuff - I knew that Simon would most likely tell his story only once, and I knew how much it meant to him. Ultimately, ghosting is about that responsibility too, whether it is to Lloyds love of the Fall, or Boycotts illness, or Miandads meaning to Pakistan cricket fans.The only time Ive ever been peed off with a review, says Gibson, was when a chap in the Cricketer said I didnt capture Joe Roots voice - thats the only time Ive been stung by a review. Its the major criticism that could be levelled at you.There is a famous joke about David Beckham and his three (so far) autobiographies, that hes written more books than hes read. It is slightly cruel, but there comes a day when the ghost must present the subject with their book, either chapter by chapter or as a finished manuscript. That is the real moment of truth. Even for people who are used to being written about - and sometimes damned - in the press, it can be a shock to see it all down there in black and white. Hoult knew exactly how Boycott would be. He was meticulous over his copy, he says. I would write up the chapters and send them to him for correction. We would go through two or three versions before we sent it off to the publisher. Boycs is a brilliant sub who picks up typos.Miandad was the complete opposite. I asked him [to read it] a few times, but he couldnt be bothered, says Shafqat. To be honest, I dont mind. He isnt much of a reader, and I could see he just wouldnt have the patience. He said he trusted me and had left it all to me. I suggested we should at least have his wife or another family member go through it, in the interest of accuracy, if nothing else. He called on his sister-in-law and she was the one who read it all.Books come and go. In this new media age, they must be bigger and brasher and fight for some shoulder room in a 24-hour culture. They can never again be as diffident as The Barry Richards Story. But books offer a more permanent experience too. The ones you love stay with you, often in physical form, but sometimes as ghosts. I suppose what every ghost hopes is that their book connects with someone somewhere, and stays with them.For that, of course, I should like to thank Martin Tyler. Michael Raffl Jersey . -- Patrick Reed got an early start in golf. Eric Lindros Jersey . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. http://www.hockeyflyersauthentic.com/jakub-voracek-jersey/ . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Sean Couturier Flyers Jersey . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Samuel Morin Flyers Jersey . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. Tom Brady started his 262nd career game on Sunday (including playoffs), and as has become commonplace over the past 16 seasons, he left the field with his team on top. Add up all of Bradys wins, and youll now get 201, more than any other quarterback in the history of the NFL, surpassing Peyton Mannings NFL record of 200.?How did he do it? Lets dive into the numbers.The quarterbacks he beat the mostBrady has collected more than one-fifth of his victories -- 43 of 201, or 21 percent -- against six opposing quarterbacks. That includes 11 victories against Peyton Manning, four more than Brady has claimed against any other starter. Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger are on the list as fellow AFC starters with great staying power. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chad Pennington and Mark Sanchez appear as current/former AFC East rivals.Andrew Luck just missed the cutoff for appearing on this list; Brady is 5-0 against Lucks teams. That makes Luck and Rivers a combined 0-11 against Brady. Their cumulative record against all other QBs? 145-96 (.602).The teams he beat the mostBrady has a 68-19 starting record against the AFC East, including 26-3 against the Buffalo Bills. Those records are phenomenal, but Brady has not necessarily padded his victory total by beating up on weak division rivals. He has done better against the NFC North (.875), AFC South (.846), NFC South (.813) and AFC North (.800) than he has done against his own division (.782).The 26-3 mark against the Bills is still remarkable, especially when considering that one of the three defeats carries an asterisk. Buffalos victory over the Patriots to close out the 2014 regular season came when New England removed Brady at halftime to rest for the playoffs. Fitzpatrick and Drew Bledsoe are the only Bills starters to beat a Brady-led Patriots team that was actually trying to win the game. Brady tossed four picks in each of those defeats.Bradys success in high-scoring gamesNFL teams have won just 23.6 percent of the time since 2001 when they gave up 21-plus points. Bradys 66-50 record in these higher-scoring games equates to a .569 winning percentage -- a whopping 2.4 times better than the league average. No other QB with 50 games played since 2001 has won even half of those tough-to-win games. Brady remains on top as the scoring bar climbs even higher.dddddddddddd He is a league-best 20-29 (.408) when the other team scores 28-plus points, far above the .151 league average.Mile High has not been his friendBradys 6-9 starting record against the Broncos is his only losing record against an opponent. That includes 1-6 from 2001 to 2009, but the venue could be more important than timing in the series. Brady is 4-2 at home against the Broncos and 2-7 when playing in Denver. That includes 2-0 at home against Manning and 0-3 on the road against him. Brady has a .500 record against five teams -- Giants (3-3), Packers (2-2), Seahawks (2-2), 49ers (1-1) and Cardinals (1-1) -- and a winning record against the remaining 26 franchises.Dominant no matter the locationBradys road winning percentage (.675) is better than the home record for a long list of prominent quarterbacks over the same span, including Brett Favre (.674), Rivers (.652), Cam Newton (.625), Drew Brees (.622), Tony Romo (.606) and Kurt Warner (.596).Bradys home winning percentage (.857) is the highest, by far, of any quarterback with at least 50 home starts since 2001. Peyton Manning is next at .772. Seattles Russell Wilson could be a long-term threat. He has a home winning percentage of .878?in 41 games (36-5).Postseason prowessBrady has more postseason victories since 2001 than Peyton Manning (14) and Aaron Rodgers (seven) combined -- and hes tied for the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history by a quarterback (four). Bradys postseason winning percentage (.710) trails only Eli Mannings .727 among quarterbacks with at least 10 postseason starts over that span.Comeback kingTied or trailing by eight points or fewer in the fourth quarter or overtime? Brady is your man. His 50-43 record and .538 winning percentage in these situations leads the league since 2001, among players with at least 50 total games played. Quarterbacks, on average, win about one-third of these games.Brady remains on top even in more desperate situations, having posted a 20-41 record (.328) when trailing by nine to 20 points after halftime. Wilson (.313) and Luck (.276) are next, followed by Romo (.256) and Peyton Manning (.246). ' ' '