Editing W. G. Grace (section)

===Approach to cricket===
[[File:WG Grace with wife.jpg|thumb|Grace with his wife Agnes, c. 1900]]
Grace himself had much to say about how to play cricket in his two books ''Cricket'' (1891) and ''Reminiscences'' (1899), both of which were ghost-written. His fundamental opinion was that cricketers are "not born" but must be nurtured to develop their skills through coaching and practice; in his own case, he had achieved his skill through constant practice as a boy at home under the tutelage of his uncle Alfred Pocock.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=17}}

Although the [[work ethic]] was of prime importance in his development, Grace insisted that cricket must also be enjoyable and freely admitted that his family all played in a way that was "noisy and boisterous" with much "chaff" (a Victorian term for teasing).{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=19}} WG and EM in particular were noted throughout their careers for being noisy and boisterous on the field—Fred was much quieter, and a less demonstrative character. They were extremely competitive and always playing to win. Sometimes this went to extremes—for example, on one occasion at school, EM was so upset about a decision going against him that he went home and took the stumps with him—and it developed into the [[gamesmanship]] for which EM and WG were always controversial.{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=19}}

Because of gamesmanship and insistence on his rights, as he saw them, Grace never enjoyed good relations with Australians in general, though he had personal friends like Billy Midwinter and [[Billy Murdoch (cricketer)|Billy Murdoch]].{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=68}} In 1874, an Australian newspaper wrote: "We in Australia did not take kindly to WG. For so big a man, he is surprisingly tenacious on very small points. We thought him too apt to wrangle in the spirit of a [[Duodecimo#Traditional inch-based paper sizes|duo-decimo]] [[lawyer]] over small points of the game".{{sfn|Birley|1999|p=111}}

He was just the same in England, and even his old friend Lord Harris agreed that "his gamesmanship added to the fund of stories about him".{{sfn|Major|2007|p=341}} One such story concerned Grace batting against Surrey in a match at Clifton. The ball lodged in his shirt after he had played it, and he seized the opportunity to complete several runs before the fielders forced him to stop. He disingenuously claimed that he would have been out [[handled the ball]] if he had removed it and, following a discussion, it was agreed that three runs should be awarded.{{sfn|Birley|1999|p=111}}

The point was that Grace "approached cricket as if he were fighting a small war" and he was "out to win at all costs".{{sfn|Birley|1999|pp=111-112}} The Australians recognised this. [[Joe Darling]], when touring England for the first time in 1896, said: "We were all told not to trust the Old Man as he was out to win every time and was a great bluffer".{{sfn|Birley|1999|p=162}}