A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India's illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket. For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India's illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It's a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing.Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion...

______________ THE WISDEN CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR 2012 'Hawkins knows both cricket and gambling, but his greatest asset in this penetrative investigation is nerve' - Sports Books of the Year, Sunday Times 'Brilliantly and vividly told ... The cricket world ... should know more about how the gambling end of the fixing saga actually works. And they should start with this book' – The Cricketer 'The most explosive book yet about corruption in cricket' - Lawrence Booth, editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ______________ A startling and powerful journey to the very core of India's illegal bookmaking industry that exposes the scale of corruption and the match-fixing that now runs rife throughout world cricket. For several years Ed Hawkins made friends with India's illegal bookmakers - men who boast turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars per cricket match - as well as the corruption officers of the International Cricket Council who are trying to shut them down. It's a shady world and rumours abound. But then Hawkins receives a message that changes everything and he decides it is time to expose the truth behind match-fixing. Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy is a story featuring politicians, governing bodies, illegal bookmakers and powerless players - as well as corruption, intimidation and even suicide. It is a story that touches all cricket-playing nations around the world. It is a story that every cricket fan must read. You might never again watch a cricket match without suspicion...

A shocking exposé of football's human-trafficking scandal. From South America and Africa, kids as young as 13 are leaving poverty-stricken families for a new life in Europe, having been sold the vision of untold riches and the trappings of professional football. This is football's slave trade – the beautiful game turned ugly. Talent-spotted by scouts, these kids are told they could be 'the next big thing'. But the reality is very different. Having spent their family's life savings to join a much-hyped academy, they soon discover the academies barely exist and that they have been exploited. Only a tiny percentage of the hopefuls are chosen just to be coached for the slim chance of a professional contract; the rest are abandoned. With no money to go home – let alone the confidence to face their heartbroken families – the Lost Boys find themselves stuck in the country they have been trafficked to, with crime often their only means of survival. From the author of Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy (shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and Wisden Cricketer's Almanack 2013's book of the year), The Lost Boys exposes for the first time the anatomy of football's human-trafficking scandal, the extent of the abuse, and how it ruins lives and threatens the credibility of the sport. With unique access to a charity trying to rescue and repatriate the children and a special investigative unit set up to stem the problem, Ed Hawkins gets under the fingernails of one of the most serious and heart-rending issues in sport today. Lost Boys is investigative journalism at its best: shocking, moving, and hoping to make a real difference.

'An absolute gem. Funny, incredible and brilliantly reported, in Ed Hawkins the sports world has its own Jon Ronson.' - Will Storr The bizarre true story about the cosmic side of sports Ever wondered if the mind tricks used by Luke Skywalker or his Star Wars brethren were real? Ed Hawkins did. A Jedi-wannabe and sports nut, he pondered: what if a coach or athlete had tried to harness such mysterious powers? They would be unstoppable. This set Ed off on an extraordinary adventure across the West Coast of America in search of a superhuman sports star. He discovers cosmic thinkers who, back in their 1960s heyday, believed that through the power of thought alone a superhuman could be created. One that could see into the future, slow down time and control minds. So successful were their tactics that they attracted the attention of the US government. Meanwhile in Russia their Soviet counterparts were employing equally bewildering brain power. Their goal? To win the Cold War. And so from the 1970s and into the Eighties the underground free-thinking movement became a fully-funded state secret in an 'inner space race' between the US and the Soviet Union. Both sides attempting to create the perfect human killing machine. It worked. Sort of. Instead of building a super soldier, the mystics from both sides came together to preach peace and love to their political paymasters. After the thaw, the search for the superhuman sports star began again and continues to this day. In The Men on Magic Carpets Ed goes deep into a secret network of supernatural sages and is told about a mysterious American football coach who made it to the top by teaching his players The Force. But can he be found? Will he admit to what he truly believes? And how does our intrepid author cope with his own brush with the Dark Side as the shadowy military once again attempt to use the mystical powers for ill?

Will the profusely talented Sanam Khan’s rise to the pinnacle of world cricket be interrupted by the bookies and the powerful match-fixing mafia? Ever since she was fifteen years old, the talented Sanam Khan has only had one dream: to win a world cup for her country. Now, thanks to her own efforts as the captain, her team of talented misfits in the Pakistan Women’s cricket team stand on the verge of realizing that dream. But fate intervenes, and the team’s success attracts the great corruptors of the sport, the match-fixing syndicates that captured the men’s team two decades ago. Will Sanam and her girls succeed where the men failed, or will history repeat itself?

Are Cricket matches we go crazy about all fixed and scripted before hand? This should not be a difficult question to answer for those who have some cricketing sense. But then, can continuous fixing in cricket be proved? This book does so scientifically and logically as not to leave any doubt in the reader's mind. And if you are betting on cricket matches, this book tells you why you should stop that forthwith. A book that answers all hows and whys one could think of about cricket fixing.

THE WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR and THE CROSS SPORTS BOOK AWARDS CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR. 'The most complete, best researched, roses-and-thorns history of cricket in Pakistan' Independent 'As good as it's likely to get' Guardian The nation of Pakistan was born out of the trauma of Partition from India in 1947. Its cricket team evolved in the chaotic aftermath. Initially unrecognised, underfunded and weak, Pakistan's team grew to become a major force in world cricket. Since the early days of the Raj, cricket has been entwined with national identity and Pakistan's successes helped to define its status in the world. Defiant in defence, irresistible in attack, players such as A.H.Kardar, Fazal Mahmood, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan awed their contemporaries and inspired their successors. The story of Pakistan cricket is filled with triumph and tragedy. In recent years, it has been threatened by the same problems affecting Pakistan itself: fallout from the 'war on terror', sectarian violence, corruption, crises in health and education, and a shortage of effective leaders. For twenty years, Pakistan cricket has been stained by the scandalous behaviour of the players involved in match-fixing. After 2009, the fear of violence drove Pakistan's international cricket into exile. But Peter Oborne's narrative is also full of hope. For all its troubles, cricket gives all Pakistanis a chance to excel and express themselves, a sense of identity and a cause for pride in their country. Packed with first-hand recollections, and digging deep into political, social and cultural history, Wounded Tiger is a major study of sport and nationhood.