The Ukrainian Cricket Team’s Last Stand
Basingstoke, United Kingdom, December 11, 2024 / TRAVELINDEX / Getting Out tells how Ukraine’s cricketers escaped from Russia’s invasion in February 2022, including first-hand accounts of the war. As the foreign-born players fled the bombings, the team’s Ukrainians took themselves to the front line. The book also holds many light-hearted stories about the surprising and eccentric history of cricket in Ukraine.
Buy the book now at Amazon
Key features
• Complete history of cricket in Ukraine, from its first match in 1993 to the country’s application for ICC membership.
• Eyewitness accounts of the first days of the war in Kyiv and Kharkiv, and first-hand reports from the war zones in Bucha and Bakhmut.
• Interviews with Ukrainian refugees about how cricket has helped them and their children to settle into a new country.
• Stories about the surprising people who made cricket in Ukraine happen.
• Foreword by Serhiy Rebrov, manager of Ukraine’s national football team.
• Publicity campaign planned including
Description
Getting Out is the remarkable story of how Ukraine’s cricketers helped the people around them to escape from Russia’s invasion in 2022, including first-hand accounts of the war. When the invasion started, the cricketers were suddenly in a fight for their lives. As the team’s India-born players led a mass evacuation from the shelling of Kharkiv, and their coach, a South African teacher, sheltered from the bombings in Kyiv in his bathtub, the squad’s Ukrainian players took themselves to the front lines to defend their country. Meanwhile, some Ukrainian refugees began to play cricket in a park in southern Europe. As well as eyewitness accounts of the first days of the war in Kyiv and Kharkiv, and first-hand reports from the war zones in Bucha and Bakhmut, the book holds many light-hearted stories – from the children’s team where nobody wanted to bat or bowl, to the players who had to be freed from a police cell before a game, to how a biofuel developer became Ukraine’s first professional cricketer. It’s a story of courage, determination and hope.
Buy the book now at Amazon
About the author
Jonathan Campion writes about cricket in unusual places for the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. He lived in Ukraine from 2007 until 2010, working as a translator and editor at international firms in Kyiv. He has written about Ukraine for Lonely Planet, and about other parts of Eastern Europe in several books and magazines. He lives in Norwich, and plays for the wandering charity cricket team The Metronomes CC.
