Wisden Cricketers' Almanack


Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, or simply Wisden, colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" has been applied to Wisden since the early 1900s.
Between 1998 and 2005, an Australian edition of Wisden was published. An Indian version, edited by Suresh Menon, was produced annually from 2013 to 2018, but discontinued following the publication of a combined 2019 and 2020 issue.

History

During the Victorian era there was a growing public appetite for sporting trivia, especially of a statistical nature. Wisden was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden as a competitor to Fred Lillywhite's The Guide to Cricketers. Its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. In 1869, the sixth edition became the first published under its current title, prior to which it had been The Cricketers Almanack. The first edition may have been based on a diary written by Francis Emilius Cary Elwes in 1863 and discovered in 2016, although to what extent this was the case remains open to question. This diary /manuscript has been photographed and transcribed with explanatory notes. It can be studied at wisdenssecret.com
Charles Pardon, with George Kelly King, founded the Cricket Reporting Agency in 1880. From Pardon's becoming editor of Wisden in 1887, the editor was nearly always a CRA partner and the CRA was responsible for the editorial production of the Almanack, until in 1965 it merged with the Press Association.
Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwell's publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, in the 1970s. Cricket fan Sir John Paul Getty Jr., bought the company, John Wisden & Co., in 1993 and in December 2008 it was sold to A&C Black, which is owned by Bloomsbury. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies, in 1963 to celebrate its 100th edition.
The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden by Robert Winder was published in 2013. In October 2013, an all-time Test World XI was announced to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Editions

Although small in page size, Wisden is a very thick book with a distinctive bright yellow cover that it has carried since the 75th edition in 1938. Prior to that, covers varied between yellow, buff and salmon pink. That edition was also the first to display the famous woodcut of two cricketers, by Eric Ravilious, on its cover. It is published each April, just before the start of the English domestic cricket season. Since 2003, the front cover has featured a photograph of one or more current cricketers, whilst a smaller version of the woodcut now appears on each volume's spine.
It is produced in both hardcover and softcover versions. Since 2006, a larger format edition has been published on an experimental basis. This is said to be in response to requests from readers who find the print size of the standard edition hard to read. It is around twice the traditional size and was published in a limited edition of 5,000. It is not a large print book as such, as the print will still be of a size found in many standard books.
From 2011 an Epub version, The Shorter Wisden, has been available in online bookstores. Described by the publishers as a "distillation of what's best in its bigger brother", it includes the Notes by the Editor, all the articles, reviews, obituaries, and the reports on all England's Test matches for the year in question. Excluded are the statistics and other cricket reports contained within the original Almanack.
Work undertaken by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians has found small errors in around 70% of the scorecards published in Wisden before 1970, as these were based on figures submitted by local reporters rather than official sources.

Contents

The contents of a contemporary edition include the following sections:

Comment

Around a hundred pages of articles on cricketing topics, including the introductory "Notes by the Editor", which address often controversial cricket issues and always provoke discussion in the cricketing world.

Awards

The traditional Wisden Cricketers of the Year awards, which date back to 1889.
Traditionally the main source for key statistics about the game, although it has never attempted to be comprehensive. Nowadays the records section is intended to be complementary to the much more detailed data available online at Wisdens associated website ESPNcricinfo.

English cricket

By far the largest section of the book. Hugely detailed coverage, including scorecards of every First class game played in the previous English summer, and summaries of minor counties, second eleven, university, school and premier club cricket, as well as the Village Cup.

Overseas cricket

Full coverage of all international cricket and brief coverage of domestic first class cricket outside England.

Law and administration

This short section, 80 pages in the 2010 edition, has information about and addresses of official cricket bodies as well as the full laws of cricket, together with appendices. There are also details of meetings held by official bodies, including their major decisions, as well as articles about the Duckworth–Lewis method and Powerplays. The laws have been omitted from the most recent editions.

The Wisden Review

This section includes the Chronicle, reviews of other cricket books published in the year, noteworthy retirements and the highly regarded obituaries section among others.

Book reviews and the Wisden Book of the Year

wrote the Books section from its inception in the 1950 edition until the 1992 edition, just before he died, with the exception of the 1979 and 1980 editions, when Gordon Ross took over. Beginning with the 1993 edition, the Books section has been written by a different person each year, often someone "with a literary reputation first and a separate enthusiasm for cricket". The first such reviewer was J. L. Carr, and others have included Sebastian Faulks and Leslie Thomas.
An award for the Wisden Book of the Year was inaugurated in the 2003 edition. The winners have been:
EditionBookAuthorReviewer
2003Bodyline AutopsyDavid FrithFrank Keating
2004No Coward SoulStephen Chalke and Derek HodgsonBarry Norman
2005On and Off the FieldEd SmithRamachandra Guha
2006Ashes 2005Gideon HaighEd Smith
2007Brim Full of PassionWasim KhanPeter Oborne
2008Tom Cartwright: The Flame Still BurnsStephen ChalkePatrick Collins
2009Sweet Summers: The Classic Cricket Writing of J. M. KilburnDuncan Hamilton Patrick Collins
2010Harold Larwood: The Authorized Biography of the World's Fastest BowlerDuncan HamiltonRobin Martin-Jenkins
2011The Cricketer's Progress: Meadowland to MumbaiEric MidwinterGideon Haigh
2012Fred Trueman: The Authorised BiographyChris WatersHarry Pearson
2013Bookie Gambler Fixer SpyEd HawkinsJohn Crace
2014Driving AmbitionAndrew StraussJonathan Liew
2015Wounded Tiger: A History of Cricket in PakistanPeter ObornePatrick Collins
2016The Test: My Life, and the Inside Story of the Greatest Ashes SeriesSimon Jones and Jon HottenDuncan Hamilton
2017Following OnEmma JohnMarcus Berkmann
2018A Clear Blue SkyJonny Bairstow and Duncan HamiltonKamila Shamsie
2019Steve Smith's MenGeoff LemonTanya Aldred
2020Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 RevolutionTim Wigmore and Freddie WildeAlex Massie
2021This is Cricket: In the Spirit of the GameDaniel MelamudEmma John
2022Who Only Cricket Know: Hutton's Men in the West Indies 1953–54David WoodhouseVic Marks
2023An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan CricketNicholas BrookesNicholas Lezard
2024Sticky Dogs and Stardust: When the Legends Played in the LeaguesScott OliverAnthony McGowan
2025One Hell of a Life: Brian Close – Daring, Defiant and DaftStephen ChalkeDavid Woodhouse

The Almanack

This section contains fixtures for the forthcoming international and English domestic season, the international schedule for the upcoming seven years and the Index of Unusual Occurrences featuring quirky cricketing stories. A selection from recent years includes: Rabbit burns down pavilion; Hot-air balloons stop play; Cricketers arrested for dancing naked; Fine leg arrives by parachute; Fried calamari stopped play; Umpire locked in ground overnight..

Editors

Wisden has had seventeen editors:
Booth's deputy, promoted to the role of co-editor, is Hugh Chevallier.