C L R James one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century was devoted to the game of cricket In this classic summation of half a lifetime spent playing watching & writing about the sport he recounts the story of his overriding passion & tells us of the players whom he knew & loved exploring the game's psychology & aesthetics & the issues of class race & politics that surround it Part memoir of a West Indian boyhood part passionate celebration & defence of cricket as an art form part indictment of colonialism Beyond a Boundary addresses not just a sport but a whole culture & asks the question ' What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?