A cricket-lit lover's dream

The cricket-playing world contains its set of pilgrimages. Few West Indian fans leave Barbados before paying respect to Frank Worrell's grave and Aussie diehards do the same with Victor Trumper's tombstone in Sydney. For lovers of cricket literature, though, there is a venue that one cannot miss: Roger Page's unbelievable collection in a suburb outside Melbourne.

Page began as a scorer and statistician in Melbourne before moving to a profession in cricket books back in 1969. Over the years he's built up a remarkable collection of close to 10,000 books, all stacked and catalogued in his spacious house in Macleod, Victoria. So prolific is the collection that even his kitchen isn't spared – with two stacks beside the cutlery.

He's devoted an entire room for his "personal favourites", writers close to his heart, but the rest, a combination of first and second hand books, are up for sale. His visitor list is an illustrious one. "Richie Benaud, a big collector himself, comes here sometimes, as does Ian Chappell."

He goes on to pull out a copy of Chappelli, the autobiography, and shows me the inscription inside: "To Ray Steel: the manager who had to tear his hair out every time he won." Steel was the manager on Australia's 1972 tour to England, a trip often remembered as the point from where Chappell's side didn't look back.

Bishan Bedi has been here too as has Steve Randell, the former umpire. But Page's fondest memory was a time during the 1992 World Cup. "So many people were here. And one says he was the biggest collector of books in the USA and the other says he's the biggest collector in England. It was quite some day."