Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, or simply Wisden, colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to Wisden since the early 1900s.
Between 1998 and 2005, an Australian edition of Wisden was published. An Indian version, edited by Suresh Menon, was produced annually from 2013 to 2018, but discontinued following the publication of a combined 2019 and 2020 issue.
History
During the Victorian era there was a growing public appetite for sporting trivia, especially of a statistical nature. Wisden was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden (1826–84) as a competitor to Fred Lillywhite's The Guide to Cricketers. Its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. In 1869, the sixth edition became the first published under its current title, prior to which it had been The Cricketers Almanack (with the apostrophe before the "s"). The first edition may have been based on a diary written by Francis Emilius Cary Elwes in 1863 and discovered in 2016, although to what extent this was the case remains open to question. This diary /manuscript has been photographed and transcribed with explanatory notes. It can be studied at wisdenssecret.com
Charles Pardon, with George Kelly King, founded the Cricket Reporting Agency (CRA) in 1880. From Pardon's becoming editor of Wisden in 1887, the editor was nearly always a CRA partner and the CRA was responsible for the editorial production of the Almanack, until in 1965 it merged with the Press Association (PA).
Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwell's publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, in the 1970s. Cricket fan Sir John Paul Getty Jr., bought the company, John Wisden & Co., in 1993 and in December 2008 it was sold to A&C Black, which is owned by Bloomsbury. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies, in 1963 to celebrate its 100th edition. (See also p. 208).
The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden by Robert Winder was published in 2013 ("The Little Wonder" was John Wisden's nickname). In October 2013, an all-time Test World XI was announced to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
Editions Although small in page size, Wisden is a 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. Prior to that, covers varied between yellow, buff and salmon pink. That edition was also the first to display the famous woodcut of two cricketers, by Eric Ravilious, on its cover. It is published each April, just before the start of the English domestic cricket season. Since 2003, the front cover has featured a photograph of one or more current cricketers, whilst a smaller version of the woodcut now appears on each volume's spine (an exception being the 150th edition in 2013, which reverted to the previous format).
It is produced in both hardcover and softcover versions. Since 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.
From 2011 an Epub version, The Shorter Wisden, has been available in online bookstores. Described by the publishers as a "distillation of what's best in its bigger brother", it includes the Notes by the Editor, all the articles, reviews, obituaries, and the reports on all England's Test matches for the year in question. Excluded are the statistics and other cricket reports contained within the original Almanack.
Work undertaken by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians has found small errors in around 70% of the scorecards published in Wisden before 1970, as these were based on figures submitted by local reporters rather than official sources.
Contents The contents of a contemporary edition include the following sections:
Comment Around a hundred pages of articles on cricketing topics, including the introductory "Notes by the Editor", which address often controversial cricket issues and always provoke discussion in the cricketing world.
Awards The traditional Wisden Cricketers of the Year awards, which date back to 1889.
Wisden Women's Leading Cricketer in the World Wisden Men's Leading Cricketer in the World
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 Wisdens associated website ESPNcricinfo.
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, school and premier club cricket, as well as the Village Cup.
Overseas cricket Full coverage of all international cricket and brief coverage of domestic first class cricket outside England.
Law and administration This short section, 80 pages in the 2010 edition, has information about and addresses of official cricket bodies as well as the full laws of cricket, together with appendices. There are also details of meetings held by official bodies, including their major decisions, as well as articles about the Duckworth–Lewis method and Powerplays. The laws have been omitted from the most recent editions.
The Wisden Review This section includes the Chronicle (noteworthy events from the previous year), reviews of other cricket books published in the year, noteworthy retirements and the highly regarded obituaries section among others.
Book reviews and the Wisden Book of the Year
John Arlott wrote the Books section from its inception in the 1950 edition until the 1992 edition, just before he died, with the exception of the 1979 and 1980 editions, when Gordon Ross took over.Wisden 2024, p. 59. Beginning with the 1993 edition, the Books section has been written by a different person each year, often someone "with a literary reputation first and a separate enthusiasm for cricket". The first such reviewer was J. L. Carr, and others have included Sebastian Faulks (1997) and Leslie Thomas (1998).
An award for the Wisden Book of the Year was inaugurated in the 2003 edition. The winners have been:
Edition Book Author Reviewer 2003 Bodyline Autopsy David Frith Frank Keating 2004 No Coward Soul Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson Barry Norman 2005 On and Off the Field Ed Smith Ramachandra Guha 2006 Ashes 2005 Gideon Haigh Ed Smith 2007 Brim Full of Passion Wasim Khan Peter Oborne 2008 Tom Cartwright: The Flame Still Burns Stephen Chalke Patrick Collins 2009 Sweet Summers: The Classic Cricket Writing of J. M. Kilburn Duncan Hamilton (editor) Patrick Collins 2010 Harold Larwood: The Authorized Biography of the World's Fastest Bowler Duncan Hamilton Robin Martin-Jenkins 2011 The Cricketer's Progress: Meadowland to Mumbai Eric Midwinter Gideon Haigh 2012 Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography Chris Waters Harry Pearson 2013 Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy Ed Hawkins John Crace 2014 Driving Ambition Andrew Strauss Jonathan Liew 2015 Wounded Tiger: A History of Cricket in Pakistan Peter Oborne Patrick Collins 2016 The Test: My Life, and the Inside Story of the Greatest Ashes Series Simon Jones and Jon Hotten Duncan Hamilton 2017 Following On Emma John Marcus Berkmann 2018 A Clear Blue Sky Jonny Bairstow and Duncan Hamilton Kamila Shamsie 2019 Steve Smith's Men Geoff Lemon Tanya Aldred 2020 Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde Alex Massie 2021 This is Cricket: In the Spirit of the Game Daniel Melamud Emma John 2022 Who Only Cricket Know: Hutton's Men in the West Indies 1953–54 David Woodhouse Vic Marks 2023 An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket Nicholas Brookes Nicholas Lezard 2024 Sticky Dogs and Stardust: When the Legends Played in the Leagues Scott Oliver Anthony McGowan 2025 One Hell of a Life: Brian Close – Daring, Defiant and Daft Stephen Chalke David Woodhouse 2026 Chasing Jessop: The Mystery of England Cricket's Oldest Record Simon Wilde Stephen Moss
The Almanack This section contains fixtures for the forthcoming international and English domestic season, the international schedule for the upcoming seven years and the Index of Unusual Occurrences featuring quirky cricketing stories. A selection from recent years includes: Rabbit burns down pavilion; Hot-air balloons stop play; Cricketers arrested for dancing naked; Fine leg arrives by parachute; Fried calamari stopped play; Umpire locked in ground overnight..
Editors
Wisden has had seventeen editors:
W. H. Crockford/W. H. Knight (1864–1869) W. H. Knight (1870–1879) G. H. West (1880–1886) Charles F. Pardon (1887–1890) Sydney Pardon (1891–1925) C. Stewart Caine (1926–1933) Sydney J. Southerton (1934–1935) Wilfrid H. Brookes (1936–1939) Haddon Whitaker (1940–1943) Hubert Preston (1944–1951) Norman Preston (1952–1980) John Woodcock (1981–1986) Graeme Wright (1987–1992, 2001–2002) Matthew Engel (1993–2000, 2004–2007) Tim de Lisle (2003) Scyld Berry (2008–2011) Lawrence Booth (2012 to present)
Booth's deputy, promoted to the role of co-editor, is Hugh Chevallier.
Contributors Wisden has had a large number of contributors. The majority involve match reports for the various fixtures recorded each year, but also biographies, reviews and opinion. Many great cricket writers have written for Wisden, along with many great cricketers. Neville Cardus contributed many notable essays and for many years John Arlott was responsible for the book reviews.
Awards Since 1902 (with the occasional exception) Wisden has honoured five cricketers for their outstanding achievements over the previous year. Further details, with a full list of recipients of the award, can be found at Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
Wisden Women's Leading Cricketer in the World Wisden Men's Leading Cricketer in the World
Indices and anthologies At least two indices to Wisden have been published: Index to Wisden, 1864–1943 by Rex Pogson (1944) An Index to Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1864–1984 by Derek Barnard (1985)
An index from 1985 onwards is available in pdf form on the Wisden web site.
A number of anthologies of articles from Wisden have been published. These include: Wisden Anthology by Benny Green (1979) Wisden Book of Obituaries edited by Benny Green (1986) The Wisden Papers of Neville Cardus (Wisden Papers) edited by Benny Green (1989) The Wisden Papers edited by Benny Green (1990) The Concise Wisden: An Illustrated Anthology of 125 Years edited by Benny Green (1990) Wisden Anthology: 1864–1900 edited by Benny Green (1992) Wisden Anthology: 1901–1939 edited by Benny Green (1992) Wisden Anthology: 1940–1963 edited by Benny Green (1992) Wisden Anthology: 1964–1982 edited by Benny Green (1992) Endless Summer: 140 Years of Australian Cricket in Wisden edited by Gideon Haigh (2003) The Wisden Collection: Volume 1 edited by Graeme Wright (2004) The Wisden Collection: Volume 2 edited by Graeme Wright (2005) Wisden at Lords: An Illustrated Anthology edited by Graeme Wright (2005) Wisden Anthology: 1978–2006: Cricket's Age of Revolution edited by Stephen Moss (2006)
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