HG Wells, born September 21, 1866, was one of the greatest authors in English language. However, it is rarely recounted that his father Joseph Wells was a useful First-class cricketer and Wells himself harboured a passion for the game even if he did not play it. Arunabha Sengupta traces the cricketing connections of the author of ‘The War of the Worlds’ and talks about a brilliant essay he penned about cricket.