The Sports Bookshelf

After a late update to include his temporary elevation to England captain (for last month’s two Twenty20 matches against West Indies), cricketer Graeme Swann’s autobiography hits the bookstands this week. As a foretaste, readers of The Sun can learn in today’s edition how the Nottinghamshire off-spinner’s first England tour included a painful late-night collision with teammate Darren Gough’s fist. The incident occurred during a difficult period in the player’s career.  Picked to tour South Africa as a 20-year-old, Swann failed the essential requirement for a happy trip by falling out of favour with coach Duncan Fletcher and subsequently suffered homesickness. He was eager to be a popular tourist in a social sense but his antics did not impress all of his colleagues, Gough apparently among them as their encounter in the toilets of a Johannesburg hotel would seem to suggest. At 32, Swann is now an established star of the England team and is twice an Ashes winner.  But ...