Batting against South Africa in the final Test of an Australian summer, carrying scores of 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, is the blunt alpha-male semi-hero of Malcolm Knoxs A Private Man. Hes likeable. A cricketer of decency who walks and signs autographs for supporters. Who also cheats on his wife and yearns for bygone days of excess out on the tool.The trooping No. 4 batsman is a relict, in relative terms a youth from the Border years playing on into the tenure of Captain Ponting. If only for legal (other than artistic) purposes, the Australian side in the novel is fictional, though. Indeed, one hopes the depiction is made with heavy creative licence, such is their gaucheness and barbarity. The Test cricketers contest and sledge with depravity, are in repose racist louts, and at the culmination, when all are drunk during celebrations, a woman is raped.The few dozen pages of A Private Man given over to cricket are among the best of the games fiction to describe play. The batsman makes a triple-century. Not a triple-century to open a nightclub over, nor the maddest, merriest day in Leeds, but a monumental two-day saga akin to Mark Taylor in Peshawar or Brendon McCullums august rearguard.Such a stupendous achievement as a triple-ton commends itself to fiction, and there is nothing obvious or dull in this telling. The innings is dwelt upon in its moments of uncertainty, anger and exhaustion, with any sense of triumph brushed through. It commences with the batsman drained, resenting his family, and concludes, how else, with a string of commonplace answers at a press conference.Knox, emeritus cricket correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, author of a revisionist history of the 1948 Ashes, and ghostwriter of Adam Gilchrists autobiography (among other feats of cricket belletrism), sets his second novel early in a new year across the five days of the Sydney Test. However, cricket, central as a plot device, is a sideshow to the novels preoccupations: family dysfunction, social pretence and pornography consumption.The last of the three subjects is provoking, not because it is kinky or depraved, but by its ordinariness. Descriptions are of time spent, intended minutes becoming half-hours, trousers down, trawling through websites. Men individually doing so secretly and guiltily, while others, such as cricket teams, engage communally, passing around magazines and forwarding emails.As the novel reflects, pornography is prevalent in society and, by grace of the internet, accessible, anonymous and free. Its relation to cricket has been sometimes noted. Russell Jacksons account of the Boxing Day MCG media box from earlier this year is horrid. Emma Johns review of this book, on its release over ten years ago, makes similar conclusions.The potent mix of subject in A Private Man, with its cricketer (and his 331 not out) a side plot, is unsurprising given the authors ambit. Knoxs non-cricket non-fiction has a range to match his compatriot Gideon Haighs, with subjects charting from methamphetamine to airlines to obsession to supermarket operation to uncovering a hoax memoirist. Hes not always infallible as a writer, and in recent years his appreciation of Shane Warnes mural has smacked of hauteur, while his race-energised response to Chris Gayles proposition of Mel McLaughlin met with censure.Knoxs services to cricket discourse, though - the latest offerings being a study of Australias wicketkeepers and the official biography of Phillip Hughes - make him pre-eminent among the games living authors. That his canon extends to a cricket novel, or at least something of one, is a blessing. This combination of a prominent cricket writer assaying the sport in fiction occurs elsewhere only with Mike Marqusees debut work, Slow Turn. Knox is a good writer and this novels opening 150 or so pages are engrossing, portraying a family of bristling individuals skirting disintegration. It loses something of its way in the back half, slightly too long, and, unpleasingly, its knot of troubles conclude in glib resolution. Its worth reading, though, if just for its excellent cricket writing. That it ventures into less often discussed territory is a bonus. It might disclose a topic more often obscured, and perhaps lead you to consider your own relation to pornography. At the least, its a neat critique of the green and golden mindset.ExtractChris Brand fields at fourth slip for the opening bowler. Blond boy, nicknamed Simmo, not because Simpson is his name - it isnt - but in recognition of the desert between his ears. Simmo runs in. Chris goes into a crouch, settling in on his left knee first to ease the strain on the arthritic right, as if working his way down a rope. He watches the ball in the bowlers hand, then switches his focus to the bat, tapping, tapping, whirring into the set of triggers unique to every batsman, ending, this time, in a decision to let the ball fly through to the wicketkeeper. Someone who is not Chris lets out a mischievous howl of frustration, as if the ball had been a lot closer than it was, and someone else rips off a loud fart.Simmo runs in. Chris crouches. Another leave. Someone oohs again, but Tom Pritchard makes a mini-megaphone of his hands: Come on, make him play! These two balls! Come on, boys! Geeing them up. Being a captain.To Chriss right, Nathan Such says something to Chris. Chris ignores him... Now they crouch for the second opening bowler, a young Aboriginal quick. Press love him, of course, though hes not really up to this standard. Chris watches his liquid run, then switches his eye to the bat. The ball kicks off an invisible ridge and hits the edge of the bat. At first it slews to Chris right, but the pace and side-spin warp it back towards him. He has to do the hardest thing for a slips catcher: go forward to the ball. He reaches out with a cupped right hand but something in his knee sticks, and as his arm goes out in front his bum pushes back. The ball bounces in front of his hand. He twitches away from it - you can lose your teeth going forward - but by pure fluke the ball sticks. His fingers close around it. A huge roar is choked off, heads are thrown back in anguish, and then the knowledgeable, or those who think they are knowledgeable, or at least the merciful, set off a round of generous applause for Chris Brands excellent stop.A Private Man (published as Adult Book in some regions) By Malcolm Knox LeBron James Shoes Free Shipping . 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No. 20 Nebraska finds itself back in the Top 25 for the first time since 2014 thanks to a 3-0 start capped by last Saturdays 35-32 victory over then-No. 22-ranked Oregon. Head coach Mike Rileys challenge this week is to make sure his squad avoids a letdown heading into Nebraskas Big Ten Conference opener at Northwestern on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET.Riley started on Sunday morning the process of moving on from the teams first nonconference home win over a ranked opponent since 2001 when it defeated No. 17 Notre Dame. The fact Huskers (3-0) are playing a Northwestern squad that has given them fits in recent years -- four of the past five meetings have been decided by three points or less including a 30-28 Wildcats win in Lincoln last season -- should make the task a little easier.I think you have to enjoy the fact that you won the game, but then the next day when you start watching the film you better get on to the next one, Riley said. There is kind of a euphoria of winning the game, and then a reality when you watch the video, and you have to take it like that for real. You have to use that game as a tool, and youve got to convince the players that this is real.I think this can be one of your hardest coaching jobs, actually.Northwestern comes in with just a 1-2 record, with losses to Western Illinois and Illinois State, but seemed to right the ship with an impressive 24-13 victory over Duke last Saturday.You have to play extremely well, said Nebraska wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp, who had two touchdown receptions against the Ducks to give him 17 in his career. On any given day, any Big Ten team can beat another Big Ten team. Thats kind of how its been for the past three years that Ive been here. But Im fairly confident if we continue to do what we do and prepare our tails off like we did last week for Oregon, we should have no issue going forward.We were excited, but like we said, were not done yet, Huskers quarterback Tommy Armstrong said. This was just a statement game for us. Everybody said that we had a couple easy games, but (Oregon was) going to test our will. That just shows how welll we work, how hard our team works to prove to everybody that were better than what we were last year.ddddddddddddArmstrong battled through severe leg cramping in the second half to lead Nebraska to the fourth-quarter comeback over Oregon. He ended the day with 295 yards of total offense (200 passing, 95 rushing) and four combined touchdowns, but Nebraskas final drive was the highlight for Armstrong.Down 32-28 with less than three minutes to play, Armstrong kept the game alive with a clutch fourth-down conversion pass to Westerkamp, and he later scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 34-yard keeper.Northwestern also comes into the contest with some momentum, bouncing back for the win over the Blue Devils after dropping their first two games by a combined three points.Youd love to have those games back, but you are your record -- and you have to work to get better, said Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. I think it just shows if you have perseverance and grit and you stay the course that you can do whatever you set your mind to.Wildcats quarterback Clayton Thorson threw for a career-high 320 yards against Duke and had touchdown tosses to Garrett Dickerson, Solomon Vault and Austin Carr, who had a career-high 135 receiving yards. Running back Justin Jackson gained 94 yards rushing.Thorson also tied career highs with three touchdown passes and 18 completions.Northwesterns defense held the Blue Devils without a score on four drives inside the Wildcats 35, including two turnovers and a missed field goal.Linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. had five tackles, including two for loss, while Jared McGee led the game with nine total tackles.I thought our defense had a pretty good plan, Fitzgerald said. I thought we tackled better except for a few plays. And I was really proud of those young guys in the secondary. They were assaulted, they were attacked and I thought they stepped up and played very well.To hold a team to 13 points and outside of that last drive -- It was pretty solid. ' ' '