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What is Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and what’s in it?
Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, to give it its full title, or more simply “Wisden” as it is more commonly called, is an annual cricket book. A new edition appears around every April.
Wisden covers many aspects of cricket. It records all first-class cricket around the world, as well as most List A cricket. For many matches, including all first-class and List A cricket in England, all Test matches and most limited overs internationals, it carries a report and scorecard.
Recent editions have more than 1,600 pages, about a fifth of which is taken up with “Records and Registers” that some might find forbidding and dry, but which are essential in its role as cricket’s definitive book of record. It also lists the Laws of Cricket and fixtures for the forthcoming English season.
However devotees know that the book is also crammed full of unique and fascinating features. Its reviews range from books published in the past year to the English weather in the past year’s cricket season. Recent editions even have reviews on cricket on twitter in the past year.
Every edition starts with the influential “Notes by the Editor” which maintains a long tradition of authoritative comment on cricket’s main issues of the past year. The fact that Wisden only appears annually gives it a unique perspective compared to other forms of media comment. Started as a regular feature in 1901 by the then editor Sydney Pardon, the “Notes” were described by Tim Rice as “permanently anxious, happy, innovative, conservative, serious, flippant, morose and triumphant”.
The “Notes” are followed by a series of articles, commissioned from top writers around the world, which make Wisden as much a reading book as it is a reference book. Its reputation for fine writing is embodied by its beautifully crafted obituaries with their sharp and authoritative judgments.
Wisden is also renowned for its eye for the quirky side of cricket and its ability to view the game beyond simply bat and ball. As Benny Green (the musician, writer and Wisden anthologist) said, a full set of Wisdens was like “a delightful social history of England”. Wherever the game is played, the name Wisden is now synonymous with cricket itself. It is fair to say that it is unchallenged as the most famous sports book in the world.
Who was John Wisden?
John Wisden was one of the star cricketers of the mid-19th century and was popularly known as “the Little Wonder”. In 1850 he took all ten wickets in an innings for North v South at Lord’s. All ten wickets were bowled, which remains a unique feat in first-class cricket.
As well as his heroics on the cricket field in 1850, he started his business – John Wisden & Co – that year, selling cricket equipment. He soon opened a shop in London and added cigars to his range of goods. The words “John Wisden & Co” can still be seen carved in the tiles above the site of his shop, now a kiosk in Cranbourn Street next to Leicester Square tube station.
When he retired as a player, he branched out into publishing and in 1864 produced the first Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
By the time of his death in 1884 the Almanack had seen off its competition and was firmly established as cricket’s book of record.
John Wisden’s grave is in Brompton Cemetery in London.
How often has Wisden been published?
The Almanack has never missed a year – even during both world wars – and is one of very few publications to have appeared in every year of the twentieth century.
Its 50th edition was in 1913, and the fact that it had already passed that milestone was probably the main reason that it continued to be published annually throughout the First World War, even though there was no first-class cricket to report. The 1916-19 editions are relatively slim due to the lack of cricket (and, no doubt, paper shortages too) and they are dominated by obituaries. Indeed the 1916 edition, one of the rarest Wisdens, contains 396 obituaries, including WG Grace.
Having managed to retain its continuity through the First World War, the publishers were determined to produce an annual edition throughout the Second World War. This time there was some cricket to report, but publication was still difficult, not least because of severe paper shortages.
The greatest challenge to the Almanack’s continuity came when Wisden’s offices were destroyed in the 1940 Blitz and much of the content prepared for the 1941 edition was lost. However the 1941 edition was still published, albeit not until December 1941, about eight months later than planned.
Wisden 2013 will be the 150th edition, and it continues to sell about 40,000 copies a year – almost certainly unique for a book priced over £40.
Has Wisden changed much since its first edition?
In the preface to the first edition of Wisden, the editors wrote: “We have taken pains to collect a certain amount of information, which we trust will prove interesting to all those that take pleasure in this glorious pastime”. That general aim remains intent of the current editors, but otherwise the Wisden of today bears little resemblance to its 1864 ancestor.
The first edition was titled “John Wisden’s Cricketer’s Almanack”. The apostrophe in “Cricketer’s” was moved in 1869 to “Cricketers’”. Then, in 1938, “John Wisden’s” was changed to “Wisden”.
The 1864 edition was an eccentric volume of old scores running to just 112 pages. And to fill even those, the printer had to throw in a list of St Leger winners, the rules of quoits, the dates of the Crusades and an account of the trial of Charles I. There were no match reports to complement the scorecards.
Match reports were introduced to the Almanack in 1870 and in 1901 the editor, Sydney Pardon, started the “Notes by the Editor” commenting on the main cricketing issues of the past year. The “Notes” established Wisden as an influential voice in the game.
Wisden’s biggest change occurred in 1938. In that edition the book was reorganised and a new content structure was established which, despite various subsequent changes, is still recognisable in the most recent editions.
1938 also saw the introduction of the three core elements of Wisden’s branding, all of which endures today. These core elements are the yellow colour, the word “WISDEN” in the playbill font and the woodcut graphic of two top-hatted cricketers, which was engraved by the artist Eric Ravilious.
The 1938 cover design was followed on every edition up to 2003 when a picture was introduced to the front cover (though all three “core elements” remain visible).
Feature articles started to appear in Wisden in the late 1800s, including the Cricketers of the Year. Starting in 1951, Neville Cardus contributed a feature article to most editions up to his death in 1975. This helped Wisden to develop a literary reputation, which accelerated when Matthew Engel took over the editorship in 1993.
Wisden has retained the same dimensions since its first edition, other than the extent of growing from 116 pages in 1864 to over 1600 pages today. In 1896 a hardback edition was introduced alongside the soft-covered (or limp) version (the earliest editions were in paper wrappers).
In 1995 a leatherbound limited edition was introduced, and in 2006 the large format version (about twice the traditional size) was first published as an alternative to the traditional size hardback and soft cover versions.
How big is a copy of Wisden?
Other than the large format version which was first published in 2006, copies of Wisden all measure about 165mm high by 105mm wide. The large format version is 240mm x 150mm.
However the extent of each edition has ranged from 116 pages in 1864 to 1782 pages in 2003. The first edition to exceed 500 pages was 1896 (which coincidentally was the year that a hardback version was introduced).
Wisden 1924 was the first edition to top 1000 pages, and in 1999 Wisden grew beyond 1500 pages.
Most collectors like to display their set of Wisdens on bookshelves with the uniformity (since 1938 all have been yellow covered) a big attraction. However a Wisden collection takes up a lot of shelf space. A full set, standing side by side, measures more than twenty feet.
How valuable is a copy of Wisden?
The record price at auction for a full set of Wisdens was £120,000 in 2007. However even this was not a perfect set as they had been rebound and a few of the early editions were missing their original wrappers. The value of a perfect set could be well in excess of £250,000.
The most valuable single edition is reckoned to be the 1875 edition. An original copy of this edition, in perfect condition, is valued at around £35,000. The next most valuable editions are probably the first Wisden (1864) and the first hardback edition (1896), both worth around £25,000 in perfect condition. Several other editions from the 1800s are worth £10,000 plus.
Many early editions that come onto the market are rebinds. These are often missing endpapers, the photographic plate or more commonly the original paper wrappers, which greatly reduces their value. However rebinds maintain a high value if all the pages and wrappers are bound in.
Most of the first 82 editions are available in limited edition reprints, allowing people to build an affordable collection, albeit one which will not be anywhere near as valuable as a set of originals.
Other factors which affect the value of some original copies include:
Is Wisden the official record book for cricket?
Wisden has always been independent rather than official. It is proud of its independence which has enabled it to establish its reputation for authoritative comment.
Although it carries no official status, Wisden is regularly referred to as “the cricketers’ bible” (though not by the publishers) and some devotees regard it as infallible (a view emphatically not shared by the publishers). However the editorial staff goes to exceptional lengths to avoid even the most minor errors.
Having been published every year since 1864, it is unmatched as a contemporary recorder and reporter on cricket for nearly 150 years. It is this longevity, combined with its core values of Accuracy, Authority, Integrity and Independence, that has made it the book of record for cricket, unchallenged though unofficial.
Does Wisden cover all cricket around the world?
Wisden has always been edited and published in the UK, and over 90% of the book sales have always been in the UK. Consequently it has always devoted more space to English cricket, with comprehensive coverage of county cricket. Even today it continues its long tradition of providing generous space to English schools averages.
In contrast, coverage of domestic cricket overseas is more condensed, though abbreviated scores of all first-class matches around the world are always included.
Major international cricket, however, is comprehensively covered in all with reports and scorecards for all Test matches, and most limited overs internationals.
Whether the coverage is comprehensive or condensed, Wisden always strives to ensure its reporting adheres to it core values of Accuracy, Authority, Integrity and Independence. So although Wisden devotes more space to English cricket than to other countries, it commissions many of its reports from overseas writers to try to ensure that its coverage is fair and balanced.
How are Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year chosen?
Wisden Cricketers of the Year are chosen by the editor, usually in consultation with a number of respected observers of the game.
Wisden has chosen Cricketers of the Year since 1889 when it announced “Six Great Bowlers of the Year”. In 1890 it chose “Nine Great Batsmen of the Year” and in 1891 “Five Great Wicketkeepers”. After that it settled at five selections each year, except for 1896 when it chose WG Grace on his own. In 1913, 1921 and 1926 no Cricketers of the Year were chosen, in favour of a “special portrait” of a prominent individual.
The suspension of first-class cricket during the First World War meant that there were no Cricketers of the Year in 1916 and 1917, but schoolboys were chosen as Cricketers of the Year in 1918 and 1919. One of the 1918 Cricketers of the Year, Harry Calder, played little cricket after leaving school and emigrated to South Africa. Until Wisden tracked him down in 1994 he had no idea that he had been a Wisden Cricketer of the Year 76 years earlier. When he died the following year, age 94, he was both the youngest ever and oldest surviving Cricketer of the Year.
Since 1927 there have always been five Wisden Cricketers of the Year, except during the war years 1941-46 when there were none, and 2011 when five were originally chosen but only four were named. This was because, prior to Wisden’s publication, one of the five (who Wisden has not named) was banned by the ICC on charges of corruption. As a result, the editor decided his selection was unsustainable, so only four Cricketers of the Year were named.
The long-standing rule governing selection is that no cricketer can be chosen twice, and therefore with a new five chosen every year Wisden has built up a list of cricketers equivalent to a “hall of fame”. The four who are honoured in the 2011 edition have raised the total number of Wisden Cricketers of the Year to 552.
The key criterion for selection is “excellence in and/or influence on the previous English cricket season”. The only exception to this was from 2001 to 2003 when selection was based on all cricket round the world. Other than these years, every player selected played in the previous English season, except for Sanath Jayasuriya who was chosen in 1997 for his influence on the English season, even though he did not appear in England during the previous season.
In its 2000 edition, Wisden named Five Cricketers of the Century. Rather than these being chosen by the editor, Wisden asked a panel of 100 experts from the around the world to each name their top five. The five cricketers who received the most votes – Don Bradman, Garry Sobers, Jack Hobbs, Shane Warne and Viv Richards (all were well clear of the sixth-placed player) – were named as Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century.
Is Wisden more than just a cricket book?
Wisden has not always been exclusively associated with cricket. For more than 100 years, John Wisden & Co was primarily a sports equipment manufacturer, so Wisden was a multi-sport equipment brand as well as a cricket book.
In 1923 Wisden first published a Rugby Football Almanack along similar lines to its cricket Almanack. Three annual editions were published, but lack of sales made it cease publication after the 1925-26 edition.
In 1979, when Wisden’s name ceased being used on sports equipment, Wisden gave its name to a new cricket magazine, Wisden Cricket Monthly. In 2003 it merged with The Cricketer magazine to become The Wisden Cricketer. In 2011 the title reverted to The Cricketer.
In the 1980s, Wisden licensed its name to various spin-off cricket books, many of them anthologies of past Almanack content. From 1998-2006 a dedicated Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack for Australia was licensed, but it ceased after eight editions.
Wisden continues to publish several other cricket books each year, and in 2011 launched a new imprint called Wisden Sports Writing. This imprint aims to build on Wisden’s literary reputation by publishing a few quality books each year, covering various sports including, but not limited to, cricket.