In the next of our summer-winter programme of virtual cricket talks author Rob Harris will join BBC cricket reporter and commentator Mark Church to talk about his book Won't You Dance for Virat Kohli?

The talk takes place on Zoom this Friday evening at 7.30pm, and to join us for the virtual talk, which includes a question-and-answer session at the end, please visit this page on Friday evening, and click here. 

Former Gloucestershire Media Sports Writer of the Year Rob Harris has been playing village cricket for almost 40 years.

In inner cities some kids join street gangs in search of respect, but in Rob's childhood the gangs were village cricket clubs and the weapon of choice was a Gunn & Moore bat.

Won't You Dance for Virat Kohli? is an honest, funny and colourful account of sporting obsession and how a childhood passion for cricket can dominate grown-up thoughts, dreams, relationships - and weekends.

This is the story of one humble club cricketer's misguided search for personal respect and fulfilment in the strangest of places, foregoing holidays and family time to spend long summer days lounging around village greens with other screwed-up 'weekend warriors', whilst secretly wishing he was somewhere - anywhere - else.

It is a book that will resonate with anyone who knows and loves grass-roots cricket. 

Rob Harris grew up in the Forest of Dean but now lives in Oxfordshire. For more than 15 years he worked on regional newspapers as a journalist, sports editor and sub-editor, and he is the former editor of The Forester newspaper.

He was named Gloucestershire Media Sports Writer of the Year and is the author of The Gloucester Rugby Miscellany. A self-confessed cricket nut, he has played the game at a lowly grass-roots level for 40 years.

Tonight's talk is the third of our third series of live virtual cricket talks this summer and autumn. After the resounding success of the lockdown-inspired series of 21 different talks, this summer sees eight of our new releases being discussed on a Friday night.

Each talk will see be hosted by BBC cricket commentator and reporter Mark Church, and he will be joined by a different author for each of the talks. They will be free to join and open to all cricket fans and promoted to members of the cricket societies across the country.

Over the years our authors have regularly appeared to speak at events, with many scheduled to appear in person this year.

However, with the restrictions remaining in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have elected to continue with this new format, as it has proved hugely popular with fans and society members, and provided a fabulous form of entertainment throughout 2020 and the start of 2021.

The 2021 summer programme will once again see the talks taking place on Friday evenings at 7.30pm and expected to last up to 90 minutes; each will also include a question-and-answer session for attendees. The talks will run throughout the summer and will finish in November.

The links will be published on the day of each talk, and circulated to interested societies ahead of each event to share with members by email or on social media channels.

If you wish to learn more about the titles and authors or purchase those books to read ahead of the talks, please click the links below for further information.

2021 Summer/Autumn Schedule 

1st October 
Greg Milam and Tony Dell, co-authors of And Bring the Darkness Home 

15th October 
Philip Brown author of The Colours of Cricket

29th October
Mark Peel author of Never Surrender

12th November
Tom Hicks, author of Bowler's Name?