With a gloomy weather forecast predicted for the recent bank holiday it seemed the perfect time to visit my local bookshop and purchase something to keep me occupied over the extended weekend break. While the opening Test Match of the summer was getting underway at Lord’s, what better time to update my collection of cricket books?

‘Following On: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession and Terrible Cricket’ is a book that perfectly encapsulates England’s cricketing woes during the 1990s. Although England’s recent form leaves a lot to be desired, they still have a long way to go to reach the depths of embarrassment they so often scaled during the last decade of the twentieth century. Emma John’s book is a fascinating and humorous reflection on a decade of sporting failure.

With comical poor timing, fourteen-year-old Emma John chose 1993 to fall in love with cricket. On one quiet afternoon in early summer she asked her sports-fanatic mother to explain the rules of the game on TV. Within a fortnight, Emma had become obsessed with the sport. At a time when her friends had posters of Oasis and Blur on their bedroom walls, Emma turned her bedroom into a cricket shrine, with posters and newspaper cuttings of her favourite players plastered on her walls.

The best part of this book comes when Emma gets to interview her childhood heroes, especially the man who captained her beloved England team – Michael Atherton. ‘Athers’ perfectly encapsulates England’s struggles during the 90s. A talented batsman, his battles against Allan Donald and Glenn McGrath are the stuff of legend, but there was always a nagging doubt that his performances never quite matched up to his talent, the same accusation could be said of the whole England team. In her meeting with England’s former opening batsman, Emma gets to experience his laid back and professional demeanour that has seen him earn a reputation as one of the most respected cricket journalists.

Emma’s passion for cricket shines throughout this book. As someone who once got detention for smuggling a pocket radio into a geography exam, I can sympathise with her efforts to keep up to date with England’s battles against the best cricket playing nations on earth. While reading this book I was reminded of the superb ‘Fever Pitch’ by Nick Hornby, another publication that tells an emotional story of sporting obsession. As Emma John explains, sometimes sport simply takes over, it becomes more than a hobby and you dedicate every waking hour to keeping up to date with the latest scores and team news.

The purpose for any team playing competitive sport is to win, but Emma John’s book is a timely reminder that sport doesn’t have to be completely results driven and that supporting a team through the hard times is often more rewarding than simply cheering on the most successful team.