Graeme Wright (1)

Every year cricket gets bigger and more complex. But every year the “Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack” is there to guide you through the highlights, lowlights and strangeness of the years’ cricket.

Casting our minds back to the 2001 edition, we see the death of the supposedly immortal Sir Donald Bradman, the issue of match fixing raising its ugly head yet again, Zimbabwe and the West Indies touring England, that the great Darren Lehmann was named one of the five “Wisden” Cricketer’s of the Year, the countless one day matches played around the world, updates on cricket outposts like Brunei and Panama, obituaries of the great (Colin Cowdrey, Brian Statham) and the lesser lights, such as Muthiah Chidambaran, who was not only a cricket administrator of note but also introduced the motor scooter to the subcontinent.… (mehr)

As the world keeps getting stranger and uncertain one looks for certainty, which is just one of the reasons to read "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack". Since its beginning in the 1860s, "Wisden" has gotten into a good groove, covering almost everything in the cricket world that needs to be covered and a few that probably didn't.

The 2002 edition had a retrospective of Sir Donald Bradman following his death the year before, plus the usual cast of the five best players in the world, a review of the previous year's cricket from international to club level, obituaries, including Bert Sutcliffe, Trevor Madondo, Gil Langley and Roy Gilchrist, and my favourite part of any "Wisden", the index of unusual occurrences. 2003 saw an apple bowled in a first-class match a cowboy act a substitute fielder and VIP helicopter stopping play.… (mehr)