Glen Maxwell's ‘The Showman’: Cricket stories that read like tales told in a pub
Summary
Glenn Maxwell’s book, ‘The Showman’, with Adam Collins, is chaotic, flashy and straightforward but not necessarily engaging
Glenn Maxwell’s book The Showman, with Adam Collins, is meant to read like a story told in a pub. That’s how the Australian cricketer would like this book to be considered. That would seem like a very Aussie thing to do and Maxwell is quintessentially Australian, checking some of the clichés one can think of.
A recent OTT show Territory, set in the deep expanse of Australia, can give a visual sense of the Australian way of life, to get the context of the pub. Brawls are common, guns are pulled out with impunity, conflict is a rite of passage—even if you cut it some slack meant for fictional television. Maxwell does this with words, telling us why a scrap is so integral to their way of life, why aggression is a mark of toughness and what makes the Australian cricketer so difficult to beat.
Maxwell built his reputation in cricket as a white ball or limited overs specialist, an unconventional slogger of the ball who could win matches on his own—and just as easily throw it away. The defining moment of his career came in the 2023 World Cup in India when Australia, by all accounts struggling a bit in the series, found themselves in trouble against Afghanistan in a must-win match.
Coming in to bat at four wickets down for 49 in the ninth over (and later 91-7), chasing 291, Maxwell stitched a 202-run partnership with captain Pat Cummins that took Australia to victory. Maxwell, cramping, barely able to run—and sometimes stand—scored an unbeaten 128-ball 201 while Cummins’ contribution to their partnership was a mere 12 runs.
Maxwell, also nicknamed ‘The Big Show’, dedicates 16 pages to this “most important day" of his career in The Showman, a defining inning that will perhaps remain the one he will be remembered for. While Australia may be prone to calling this the greatest inning of a one-day international, it certainly was an astonishing one, in which Maxwell lived dangerously, performed uproariously and succeeded miraculously.
Also read: Meet Indian hockey's next gen drag flick champions
Australia went on to win the title, shutting down a rampaging Indian team in the final in Ahmedabad, in front of a hundred thousand purely partisan supporters. As Cummins, who deserves his own book according to Maxwell, said before the final, there was nothing more satisfying for the visitors than to hear a big crowd go silent.
Maxwell’s career may not stand out as extraordinary, not among the upper echelons of Aussie cricketers who have for more than a century been among the best of world cricketers. But as a limited overs specialist—he has also played seven Test matches with limited success—he stands out as a contemporary champion, whose exploits in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is familiar to Indian fans.
Maxwell’s growth as a cricketer comes along conventional lines, as do his struggles with form, fitness and in getting into a competitive Australian side. He addresses his slumps with sincerity, especially when dealing with fatigue and mental health issues that had him take a break from cricket and start from the bottom in order to find confidence.
The conversation on mental health, depression and anxiety, especially for sportspersons expected to be on top of their game at all times, is under-represented in India. But Maxwell addresses it with openness, documenting his journey through those tough times before he finds his mojo again. The double ton in Ahmedabad must have definitely helped, as a “night that will shape the rest of your life," he writes.
Also read: The quiet triumph of D. Gukesh
The middle-order batter and off-spinner’s career is deeply entwined with India, especially because of his involvement with the IPL over the years. His long association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)—though he has also played with the Punjab, Mumbai and Delhi teams—helped him forge a bond with Virat Kohli, who has written the foreword for The Showman.
Maxwell or Maxi as teammates call him is not too complimentary of Virender Sehwag during his time with the Punjab team in the IPL. When Maxwell was captain of the team, he accuses Sehwag of “pulling the strings" from behind the scene, making “decisions that didn’t necessarily make sense," and for overriding the coach.
With the IPL being the kind of revolving door that it is, Maxwell ironically finds himself back with Punjab Kings for the 2025 season, having been released by RCB.
There is no love lost with former Australian coach Justin Langer either, because of a blow-up over a “‘careless whispers’ press conference" and a communication break-down. Langer later accuses Maxwell of faking an injury so he could attend his best friend’s wedding, which was another example of Langer having “some sort of block" when it came to Maxwell.
He is also critical of Indian players’ need to chase personal glory over—at times—the need of the team. “The intense focus on milestones for Indian batters did stand out to me," he writes, taking the example of K L Rahul in a World Cup group match against Australia in Chennai. “It was strange seeing a player gutted at having timed a shot better than intended," writes Maxwell, because Rahul hit a winning six instead of an intended four, leaving him unbeaten on 97.
The Showman is largely unstructured, as Collins mentions in his co-author’s note, so “some chapters bounce around wildly, but then, so can Maxi". The flow of events gets confusing, unless one is a keen follower of Australian cricket—and cricket in general. Some words are so Australian, like nuffie (an Australian rules football term), that it might need Googling to decipher.
Also read: Lewis Hamilton's legendary farewell: 12 seasons of F1 dominance with Mercedes
Maxi also uses nicknames for his teammates, which makes it at times baffling to follow. Watto, Wadey, Kez, Starcy, Smudge, among others, require some amount of guess work—or intuition or knowledge—to understand. Use of only first or second names come from an assumption that the reader is fully invested in the sport.
Written exactly as someone would speak to a friend, lacking sometimes in conventional grammar, some cute anecdotes form the lighter side of The Showman. There is an instance of when Maxwell thought Kohli had blocked him on Instagram, of him getting a prize for scoring off Shane Warne, mishearing and incorrectly naming Tokyo as Japan’s currency on a TV show. Maxwell pays heart-felt tributes to his manager Tony Connelly, the late cricketer Phil Hughes, to Cummins’ leadership skills and to Starc, who he calls the heart and soul of the team.
He is honest about his skills, admitting that, “I had long accepted that my style isn’t for everyone, with some never willing to accept that a bloke who reverse-sweeps his way around the world is a serious player."
Maxwell’s The Showman is true to the player: chaotic, flashy and straightforward but not necessarily engaging. Maxi’s batsmanship, clearly, trumps over his penmanship.
Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai-based journalist who covers sports, business leaders and lifestyle.
