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Wisden

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (often referred to simply as Wisden or colloquially as \"the Bible of Cricket\") is by far the best known reference book concerned with the sport of cricket, and is among the most famous sports reference books published in the United Kingdom. more...

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It was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden (1826-1884), and its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. The sixth edition was the first published under its current title; the first five were published as The Cricketer's Almanack, with the apostrophe before the \"s\".

It has had only 15 editors in over 140 years, including Sydney Pardon for 35 editions (1891 to 1925), and Norman Preston for 28 editions (1952 to 1980). Matthew Engel is currently the editor.

Wisden is a small-paged but very thick book (over 1,500 pages in modern editions) with a distinctive bright yellow cover that it has carried since the 75th edition in 1938 – in previous years, covers varied between yellow, buff and salmon pink. The 75th edition was the first to display the famous woodcut of two Victorian cricketers, by Eric Ravilious, on its cover. It is published each year in April, just before the start of the English domestic cricket season. The woodcut has been replaced by a photograph of a current cricketer in recent editions, starting with Michael Vaughan in 2003.

Collecting old Wisdens is a popular activity among cricket followers, and early editions command high prices. The first edition, only 112 pages long, sold for 1 shilling, but copies in good condition can sell for over £20,000. The editions published during the two World Wars are also very rare, as a result of wartime paper restrictions. In recent times, fascimilies of many of the early editions have been published.

For 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.

Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwell's publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, in the 1970s. Sir Paul Getty bought the company, John Wisden & Co, in 1993. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies in 1963, to celebrate its 100th edition.

Typical contents

The contents include the following:

Comment: Around a hundred pages of articles on cricketing topics, including the introductory \"Notes by the Editor\", which are always widely discussed in the cricketing world.; Awards: The traditional Wisden Cricketers of the Year awards, which date back to 1889, and the Wisden Leading Cricketer of the World award, started in 2004.; Records: 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 Wisden's associated website Cricinfo.; 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 and club cricket.; Overseas cricket: Full coverage of all international cricket and brief coverage of domestic first class cricket outside England; History and laws.; The Wisden review including the book's highly-regarded obituaries and the Chronicle section, with quirky cricketing items from the past year (a selection from 2005: Rabbit burns down pavilion; Hot-air balloons stop play; Cricketers arrested for dancing naked).; Fixtures for the forthcoming season.;