Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2014

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack #151

by Lawrence Booth (Editor)

The most famous sports book in the world, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has been published every year since 1864. Wisden 2014 - the 151st edition - contains coverage of every first-class game in every cricket nation, and reports and scorecards for all Tests and ODIs.

Including the eagerly awaited Notes by the Editor (Lawrence Booth), the Cricketers of the Year awards, and some of the finest sports writing of the year - such as the brilliant obituaries - together with trenchant opinion, compelling features and comprehensive records, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2014 truly is a "must-have" for every cricket fan.

A perennial bestseller in the UK.

"There can't really be any doubt about the cricket book of the year, any year: it's obviously Wisden". Andrew Baker in the Daily Telegraph

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

1584 pages, Hardcover

First published April 10, 2014

Reviews

[Alan Draycott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book that you have to read every page, though at £50 perhaps you should, but I’ve had it for a couple of weeks and dipped in an out of it. There is no other game where so many people daily and obsessively check the details of matches which they have not the slightest intention in attending and care very little about the result and so a special type of book is required to cover it.
The book does what it should, transport the reader from whatever dreary spot he happens to find himself in, elsewhere, perhaps to a beautiful English cricket ground in June, or maybe to some far away time and place whence a half forgotten cricketer once weaved his magic. Some of the articles within the book are relevant and crucial to the games future shape, others are not. I thoroughly enjoyed the article on great women cricketers and on league cricket in Staffs but there were also others that more than held my attention. But that’s not the point of the book. Its almanac function is not even its point- no that maybe what it does- but that’s not its point. Perhaps its point is to show the reader that the game of cricket is more than the game of cricket. It's more than its sum of parts. From the public school fields of England to the back streets of a Pakistani village the game is more than game. It is a code, a way of living and this book is its guide, recorder and heart.
I see all entrants in its article writing competition get a name check. At last an opportunity to get in the great book has arrived.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the best publication on cricket. Essays at the beginning are a treat. Plenty on Tendulkar’s retirement, last winter’s “Pomnishambles” and the takeover of the ICC by the ECB, CA and BCCI.

Usual array of excellent stats. Some of the most interesting on page 701 in Neville Scott’s review of domestic t20. This is worth quoting in full:

“For all the claims made for its excitement, there is a predictability to Twenty20. Ignoring rain-affected matches, first innings totals produced the following results in 2013:

a) scores of 136 and below: P21 W0 L21

b) 137-154: P26 W7 L17 T2

c) 163 and above: P35 W26 L9

Now I know whether to stay on late at the Oval to see Surrey win/thrilling finale, or just go home.

[Jim Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rather suspect that most people (it not all) know what they think about this book before they read the reviews here, but here goes...

This book looks at the year in world cricket that was 2015, with a particularly English focus on things, and the English Season in particular. It has all the usual content you find in a Wisden, five cricketers of the year, details of county games, one day tournaments there, and test matches and the like, and opinion pieces about how the game has progressed over the past year.

If you're stats minded and are the sort who'll want to refer back to what happened in a game, a player or a season in the future, I think this is book is for you. It gives you a good sense of what 2014 was like in cricket.