Sports Book Awards launches public vote for best sports book of 21st century

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Sports Book Awards (SBA) is launching a public vote to crown the best sports book of the 21st century, chosen from a list of previous SBA winners.

Titles about renowned sporting figures including Muhammad Ali, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Shane Warne feature on the shortlist of 20 books, of which Simon & Schuster has published five.

The titles were chosen by the SBA’s judging academy.

There are seven football-related books on the list: Back from the Brink by Paul McGrath (Arrow), A Life Too Short (Yellow Jersey) chronicling the life and suicide of German goalkeeper Robert Enke, Adrian Tempany’s account of the Hillsborough disaster And the Sun Shines Now (Faber & Faber), Michael Calvin’s The Nowhere Men (Arrow), Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting The Pyramid (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), Ken Bensinger’s Red Card (Profile), and My Autobiography by Sir Alex Ferguson (Hodder & Stoughton).

Michael Calvin has also been nominated with Proud (Ebury), which he wrote with former Wales and British Lions Captain Gareth Thomas. Other rugby books include Brian Moore’s Beware of the Dog (Simon & Schuster), Ben Ryan’s Sevens Heaven (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and Tom English’s The Grudge (Yellow Jersey).

Anna Krien’s Night Games (Yellow Jersey) features alongside two of last year’s Sports Book Awards winners The Moth and the Mountain by Ed Caesar (Penguin) and Born Fighter by Ruqsana Begum (Simon & Schuster.)

Harold Larwood by Duncan Hamilton (Quercus), Cricket 2.0 by Freddie Wilde and Tim Wigmore (Polaris) and On Warne by Gideon Haigh (Simon & Schuster) are the cricket books selected.

Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh (Simon & Schuster), Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Simon & Schuster) and Matthew Syed’s Bounce (Fourth Estate) complete the best sports books of the 21st century list.

The public vote is now open on the Sports Book Awards website, and the title that accrues the most votes will be announced on the night of the Sports Book Awards. Shortlists in 11 award categories will be announced on the 5th May. The awards, which are held annual in association with the Sunday Times, will take place at the Kia Oval on the evening of Thursday 26th May.