Steven Lynch

Wisden On The Ashes – The Book For Cricket Lovers

Any lover of cricket knows that the annual publication of Wisden is a must, the best written, statistically correct almanac in sport. Others try to be as good, but do not get lost to the majesty of the writing and editing of this historic almanac, it no doubt helps that the editor is also a cricket fan which helps structure this work.

One of the greatest and longest sporting rivalries in the world is that of England and Australia played out on a cricket pitch, when the teams entered the field at Melbourne in 1877. Then five years later when the mock obituary appeared in the Sporting Times, and as they say the rest is history. Or in this case all 341 test matches have been played, reported and analysis like only cricket people can do.

People, especially Americans, go on about game statistics in relation to that glorified girls game commonly known as baseball. In fact there is now a whole raft of sports that produce statistical analysis for all sorts of reason, but cricket got there first, everything else stemmed from cricket and its and our obsession, with innings, bowling and batting averages.

Wisden on the Ashes reproduces the reports and the statistics from every single Ashes game reproducing the original match reports and statistics. As well as telling us who the Wisden Cricketer of the Year was at the time, along with a biography of the player. When one reads through the biographies, which are detailed from the time they were written and placed in the Wisden of that year.

Wisden on the Ashes is a living breathing book, a book that will be added too in the future, but right now it is all about rereading the wins and the losses. Australia have the better success rate but England does her best to cut that deficit and yes bowling out the Aussies for 60 at Trent Bridge is here. All the great games and great players are here and being able to dip in and out is wonderful.

The book has been split in to a number of sections rather than chapters, so it tackles the Early Days (1876-77 to 1882, The Roaring Twenties, and then Bradman, Bodyline and Bradman Again. The way the book has been split up makes it easier to find and understand relevant periods of the game. There as some wonderful pictures included in the volume and yes there is a picture in from the Bodyline series, with Larwood bowling to Woodfull.

Wisden on the Ashes is a must for cricket lovers of all ages, and it is up to date and includes the recent 2015 series, which escapes me as to who won that one, I will have to reread that test series to remind myself! This is a brilliant book, excellent detail and takes you through the journey of the Ashes series from the beginning, and the writing is perfect, clear and concise, with some excellent editorial skills on show.

Wisden on the Ashes is second to none!… (mais)