Wisden – The Cricket Bible

Since cricket has been played, detailed records and facts have been kept. Data from the earliest Test matches has been preserved since 1877. By the very nature of the game, cricket has created a wealth of statistical records and an extraordinarily rich collection of cricket histories, the Ashes 2009 Test series between England and Australia it won’t be any different. So where do you go for information on all things cricket?

Simply the first port of call for all things cricket must be Wisden, this Cricket Almanac is THE reference guide to cricket, and was first produced in 1864 by English cricketer John Wisden and has been published annually since then. Although usually containing around 1500 pages of facts and figures, the first edition was only 112 pages long and was filled with several non-cricket related items such as battle dates in the English Civil War, winners of The Oaks.

The Almanac first appeared in salmon pink, but today’s easily recognizable yellow cover first appeared in the 75th edition in 1938, as did the woodcut image of two Victorian gentlemen playing cricket in straw hats. Cup and tight pants. The first ‘real’ person to appear on the cover was Michael Vaughan in 2003.

The Wisden Almanac is indestructible! Although Wisden’s factory at Mortlake was destroyed in 1944 after being hit by a German bomb which destroyed all records, it did not actually suffer any loss in production as all information was contained in the existing Almanac and the company managed to continue production. production without losing any vital information.

There have only been 16 Wisden editors in its 146 years: the shortest only served one year and the longest 34 years.

Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year dates back to 1899 and is one of sporting’s oldest honours. Since 1927 there have been five chosen in each edition (except for the war years (1941-1946) when none were chosen, although the almanac was still produced. The 2006 edition saw the 300th Wisden Cricketer of the Year since the World War II and in 2009 Claire Taylor of England became the first woman to be elected.

Although records of Test matches have been kept since 1877, the first Test match between England and Australia which took place that year was not covered at Wisden for 100 years. The scorecard was printed to celebrate the centenary of the event in 1977 and, interestingly, the result was the same in both cases: Australia won by 45 races.

Wisden now has an associated Cricinfo website and the book is now more of an additional reference to this site. As you would expect from any Wisden, it is probably the most comprehensive online cricket information site in the world, containing a huge archive of cricket records and statistics. Use the Cricinfo Stats guru to find any cricket you want to know, be it countries, players, fields or officials. It has so much information that you can really make it your ‘one stop shop’ for all things cricket.

Watch and listen closely for new stats, facts and stories as England and Australia return to their old rivalry in the 2009 Ashes Test series this summer. Only one team can return with the famous Urn. Urna – Urna I hear you say…. Ah that’s another story!