Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2003

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack #140

by Lisle Tim De (Editor)

The decision to break with nearly a century and a half of tradition by putting a photograph on the cover of the 2003 Wisden--the 140th edition of the annual cricket almanack--deserves at least to alert the public to the fact that this is no longer the dusty, stats-obsessed tome of yesteryear, but one of the best reads in sport.

Just as Channel 4 have raised the bar for domestic TV coverage of the game, so recent Wisden editors have taken a neglected institution and turned it into something that will appeal to a readership far wider than just the professionals and collectors who, one suspects, for too many years have regarded purchasing each edition as a "death and taxes" moment--equally inevitable, and of equally scant appeal.

Yes, it's still one of the biggest small books around--jam-packed with results, reports, scorecards, averages and analysis covering the domestic county game, international one-day matches and Tests--with swathes of often tiny print, punctuated by hundreds of black-and-white photos extending to nearly 1800 pages.

But what could seem an unmappable mass of information has been sympathetically corralled, with the first of this year's new features, a Guide for New Readers, pointing you in the direction of the juicier stuff--essays such as Richie Benaud's Favourite Tests, profiles including Aussie legend Steve Waugh, Don't Marry a Cricketer by Derek Pringle, the story of England's Ashes capitulation, the year's best cricket books reviewed by Frank Keating and the key statistical records that underpin the game's history.

Wisden, we are told, is really four books in one: the essays, the pure stats reference work, the annual look at the previous season's play and a miscellany including obituaries, reviews and various articles. This much revered, but less-often read, treasury of cricket is almost too modest to mention that in each element it exemplifies excellence with the same combination of ruthless accuracy, creative flair and unquenchable enthusiasm that characterises the finest moments of the sport itself. --Alex Hankin

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction

1500 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 2003

Reviews

[Jim Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unless something pretty fundamental happens, reviewing Wisden is something that beggars the question "Why? Why would you do that?", because it has pretty much the same structure every year (i.e. a collection of essays on cricket, a collection of records, a review of tours to England, the English season, English, and other, tours to foreign climes etc. etc.).

This book is no different to that standard formula. If you like that, or have had Wisdens before, and liked them, or collect them, or something like that, you'll like this book. It's what you're used to. If you want to get into a certain type of cricket watching and writing, this is probably going to be a good place to start. It is Wisden after all.

So It's Wisden. Read it. Don't. It's your standard Wisden.