Cricketers all do funny things when they retire. Annoying commentators, poker players, Advanced Hair Studio models and real estate franchise owners are just some of the professions that they have chosen to bridge the gap between cricket retirement age and real life retirement age.
That is why it is not that much of a shock that Herschelle Gibbs has retried from international cricket and signed a deal to become an author with Mills & Boon. Well, it is a surprise if you consider that this is a man that brags about never reading a book in his life but hey, stranger things have happened like Harbhajan Singh scoring a Test century for instance.
Gibbs has reportedly resigned himself to the fact that he can no longer compete with the young guns in the South African squad and he knows he can make much more money in pajama party cricket than he ever would fixing matches for South Africa.
Mills & Boon snapped up the budding writer for a novel about a cricketer who battles with a sex and alcohol addiction. It’s a far cry from what we have come to expect from the normal sugar coated Mills & Boon books but the publishers believe that this one will really go places.
The manuscript has been leaked and reports suggest that this could be a runaway success as the book actually focuses more on the cricketing career of a young man rather than the battles sex addicts are faced with these days.
While it is apparently very controversial, publishers believe that this is exactly the reason why it will sell.
The book has not been without criticism, though, and while it is still in its infancy some believe that the book focuses too much on cricket and not enough on sex.
When Gibbs was asked about why he decided to take such a serious approach for his maiden novel he said: “Ag bru, it was my story and I just wanted to tell it as it is.
“It’s not easy being a professional cricketer who has to like, deal with all these thoughts about promiscuity and the desire to do drugs all the time but I didn’t want the book to be about that, I wanted the book to focus on cricket, bru. Cricket is a really important part of my life and I wanted to make sure people know that. I wanted to be remembered for being a great cricketer and not for being some womanizing Casanova.”
Critics are, however, not convinced and in early extracts published in newspapers across the country editors were outraged.
“Who does Gibbs think he is? How can he take such a serious disease and such a respectable publishing name and just disregard it with all his cricket talk. It’s a shame, he should be ashamed,” one editor wrote.
These sentiments were echoed across many major publications but the South African public are lapping it up and forums, blogs and comment sections on online news sites are awash with praises for Gibbs.
The public lauded his bravery for focusing on what is really important and forcing sex and drugs to take a backseat instead of using sensationalist smut to sell his book.
Some critics believe that the novel is sort of a pseudobiography but others say it’s simply another one of Gibbs’ natural talents crawling out of the woodwork.
Whatever happens with the book, it certainly has created a buzz and there are even reports of a movie directed M. Night Shyamalan and Robert Downey Jr as Gibbs.