Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks,
Football & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
22nd, 23rd & 24th March 2024
Lot 915
Estimate: £70/100
Hammer: £55
‘Cricket. How to Become a Great Batsman and a Great Bowler’. J.A. Veerasawmy. Georgetown, Demerera, British Guiana, first edition 1936. Presentation copy ‘To R.J. Abel Esq. “A Great Batsman” from J.A. Veerasawmy’ with a lengthy handwritten dedication, ‘With fond memory and sincere gratitude for the honour of having had cricketing lessons from so great a cricketer, lessons which laid the foundations of my cricket thought and which inspired this effort. J.A. Veerasawmy 16-3-36’. The printed dedication page describes the book being dedicated to ‘a great Surrey and England Cricketer’, assumed to be Bobby Abel who died in December 1936, this presumably being his copy. A copy of this title, similarly dedicated to Clarrie Grimmett ‘A Great Bowler’, was sold by Knights in 2019. Bound in modern blue cloth with original wrappers retained, gilt title to spine, ‘Cricket. J.A. Veeraswamy[sic] 1936’. Some age toning, otherwise in good/ very good condition.
John Aloysius Veerasawmy was a left-arm medium pacer who was the first East Indian to represent British Guiana (now Guyana) in first class cricket from 1910-1922. He trained in London as a barrister and, on his return, was influential in promoting cricket among people of Indian ancestry.