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Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2025
The most famous sports book in the world, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has been published every year since 1864.
Home to some of the finest sports writing of the year, in this edition: Gideon Haigh reflects on the latest Australia v India series, Scyld Berry pays tribute to James Anderson, following his retirement, and Derek Underwood and Graham Thorpe are remembered by Mike Brearley and Alec Stewart – their former Test captains and friends. Wisden also considers cricket’s deepening reliance on artificial intelligence, and whether the game can ever thrive in the USA.
As usual, Wisden includes the thought-provoking Notes by the Editor, the Cricketers of the Year awards, and the authoritative obituaries. There are reports and scorecards for every Test, together with forthright opinion, compelling features and comprehensive records.
Home to some of the finest sports writing of the year, in this edition: Gideon Haigh reflects on the latest Australia v India series, Scyld Berry pays tribute to James Anderson, following his retirement, and Derek Underwood and Graham Thorpe are remembered by Mike Brearley and Alec Stewart – their former Test captains and friends. Wisden also considers cricket’s deepening reliance on artificial intelligence, and whether the game can ever thrive in the USA.
As usual, Wisden includes the thought-provoking Notes by the Editor, the Cricketers of the Year awards, and the authoritative obituaries. There are reports and scorecards for every Test, together with forthright opinion, compelling features and comprehensive records.
1600 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 2, 2025
It's the OG for cricket lovers.
June 4, 2026
As ever, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2025 is a peerless record of a year’s cricket in England and worldwide. At over 1500 pages it is now more like a brick than a book and struggles not to keep growing, trying to keep pace with all the mutations of cricket that continue to spring up. Fear not, however—Wisden is holding firmly to a sense of proportion. You’ll see where its priorities lie if I tell you that it gives 235 pages to English County Cricket, with a report and full scorecard for every game, while the behemoth of a black hole that is the Indian Premier League (IPL) warrants just 3 pages.
The first four sections, which together comprise half the book, hold the greatest interest for an English cricket follower. Part One – Comments I always read most voraciously and this year’s offering did not disappoint, with its range of informed and insightful thoughts and opinions from a panoply of writers. Covered this year, as well as the usual cricketers of the year, are, for example, James Anderson’s retirement, cricketing hero worship in poetry and song, Mike Brearley on the passing of Derek Underwood and Alec Stewart on Graham Thorpe.
Part Two - The Wisden Review contains surveys of cricket and cricketing’s appearance in books, films, theatre and other media, cricket crossing paths with the law of the land as well as clarifications and changes to its own laws. The most interesting of the latter resulted from a junior cricketer hitting the ball straight into the bowler’s end wicket, from which it rebounded onto his own stumps, rendering him out, bowled. It was considered to “make a mockery of the Law for the dismissal to stand”. The obituaries of the great, the good and the obscure provide reminders of stars that once shone as well poignant glimpses of those that barely shone at all. Thus, alongside Derek Underwood, Graham Thorpe, Mike Procter (SA & Gloucestershire, Ken Palmer (umpire) and Duncan Fearnley (bat maker), we have an administrator, a journalist and a couple of young unknowns who sadly died while playing the game.
Part Three – English International Cricket offers an opportunity to relive the highs and lows of the England team. Here, I skip entirely the T20Is, though each has a full scorecard and report, as they generally hold less interest than yesterday’s chip-wrapping. Part Four – English Domestic Cricket reviews the county season and gives each first class match a full report and scorecard. Would that Wisden held the highly forgettable county T20 Blast (28 pages) and the flesh-eating Hundred (12 pages) in the same disdain as it does the IPL. The County One-Day Cup (22 pages) holds little interest now that it is virtually a second eleven competition because of The Hundred. There is space still for club, village, disability, veterans, youth and schools cricket.
A look back at the test matches, at least, in Part Five – Overseas International Cricket is always worthwhile, as is a dip into the vagaries and variations of Part Six – Overseas Domestic Cricket and how they do things differently there. Except in India, women’s domestic cricket is almost entirely focused on the white-ball game, thus Part Seven – Women’s Cricket consists almost entirely of international cricket. The one thing lacking from Part Eight – Records and Registers is the biographical details of each county and test player, for which you still have to go to elsewhere.
Finally, in Part Nine – The Almanack is an entertaining mix of thisses and thats, such as cricketing punishments meted out, international umpires, the impenetrable DLS Method, a calendar of cricketana in the news (with Nick Newman’s cartoons drawing you in) and an ‘in-case-you-missed-them’ index of unusual occurrences found earlier in the book. My sigh of relief at reaching the end of such a mammoth read is always accompanied by a sigh of regret. The new cricket season is under way and clamours for my attention along with Wisden 2026.
The first four sections, which together comprise half the book, hold the greatest interest for an English cricket follower. Part One – Comments I always read most voraciously and this year’s offering did not disappoint, with its range of informed and insightful thoughts and opinions from a panoply of writers. Covered this year, as well as the usual cricketers of the year, are, for example, James Anderson’s retirement, cricketing hero worship in poetry and song, Mike Brearley on the passing of Derek Underwood and Alec Stewart on Graham Thorpe.
Part Two - The Wisden Review contains surveys of cricket and cricketing’s appearance in books, films, theatre and other media, cricket crossing paths with the law of the land as well as clarifications and changes to its own laws. The most interesting of the latter resulted from a junior cricketer hitting the ball straight into the bowler’s end wicket, from which it rebounded onto his own stumps, rendering him out, bowled. It was considered to “make a mockery of the Law for the dismissal to stand”. The obituaries of the great, the good and the obscure provide reminders of stars that once shone as well poignant glimpses of those that barely shone at all. Thus, alongside Derek Underwood, Graham Thorpe, Mike Procter (SA & Gloucestershire, Ken Palmer (umpire) and Duncan Fearnley (bat maker), we have an administrator, a journalist and a couple of young unknowns who sadly died while playing the game.
Part Three – English International Cricket offers an opportunity to relive the highs and lows of the England team. Here, I skip entirely the T20Is, though each has a full scorecard and report, as they generally hold less interest than yesterday’s chip-wrapping. Part Four – English Domestic Cricket reviews the county season and gives each first class match a full report and scorecard. Would that Wisden held the highly forgettable county T20 Blast (28 pages) and the flesh-eating Hundred (12 pages) in the same disdain as it does the IPL. The County One-Day Cup (22 pages) holds little interest now that it is virtually a second eleven competition because of The Hundred. There is space still for club, village, disability, veterans, youth and schools cricket.
A look back at the test matches, at least, in Part Five – Overseas International Cricket is always worthwhile, as is a dip into the vagaries and variations of Part Six – Overseas Domestic Cricket and how they do things differently there. Except in India, women’s domestic cricket is almost entirely focused on the white-ball game, thus Part Seven – Women’s Cricket consists almost entirely of international cricket. The one thing lacking from Part Eight – Records and Registers is the biographical details of each county and test player, for which you still have to go to elsewhere.
Finally, in Part Nine – The Almanack is an entertaining mix of thisses and thats, such as cricketing punishments meted out, international umpires, the impenetrable DLS Method, a calendar of cricketana in the news (with Nick Newman’s cartoons drawing you in) and an ‘in-case-you-missed-them’ index of unusual occurrences found earlier in the book. My sigh of relief at reaching the end of such a mammoth read is always accompanied by a sigh of regret. The new cricket season is under way and clamours for my attention along with Wisden 2026.
May 21, 2025
Unless something shocking happens one year and they decide to completely restructure this series, reviewing Wisden probably doesn’t make sense. It’s Wisden, you know what you’re getting. It has the same structure every year.
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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews