Product Description

The world’s most famous sports book emerges for the 142nd time in sprightly mood.

It is more up-to-date than at any time in history, with full reports of England’s astonishing winning sequence that took them from Jamaica to Johannesburg – and a dozen Test victories – in just ten months. It has more feature articles than ever before. And it is the essential souvenir for England supporters who want the glow of the team’s wonderful year to linger forever.

Cricket’s top writers are in Wisden 2005: Richie Benaud, Mike Selvey, Angus Fraser, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Alan Lee, Vic Marks, David Frith, Scyld Berry and Tony Cozier; and keeping them company is Wisden’s editor, Matthew Engel, who will open the batting with his trenchant Notes.

There are full reports of an amazing cricketing year: the world records for Brian Lara, Murali and Shane Warne, and the rows over chucking, Zimbabwe and Sky. And Wisden tells the story of the big new betting craze, the inside story from a Test match dressing-room and the why village cricket is splitting in two.

But this is also a global book. Wisden explains how the mighty confusion of Indian TV bankrolls the game. One great Australian, Richie Benaud, pays homage to another, Keith Miller. It reports on South Africans’ lingering love affair with Hansie Cronje and, from Sri Lanka, how cricket rose to the challenge of the terrible tsunami.

As ever, Wisden also has its own secrets to reveal. Who will be the Five Cricketers of the Year? And who was the Leading Cricketer in the World in 2004?

Oh, and there’s the brothel that caters solely for professional cricketers, an interview with cricket’s most famous Slovak goalkeeper, the ground where it hasn’t rained in 15 years….

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302358 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1560 pages

Customer Reviews

Annual event, way of life, a treasury of dreams and memory
It's nearly forty years since I bought my first copy of 'Wisden', and the annual event of its release is something which is as reassuring, as inevitable, and as eagerly awaited as a child's Christmas. My first copy was rapidly, but reverently, reduced to dog-eared decrepitude as I pored over the records and scorecards. I was a wicketkeeper, and every page seemed to harbour a wicketkeeping nugget - the most catches, the most stumpings. Within days of owning my first copy, I could recite facts and figures enough to win television prizes.

That's the nature of cricket. It lends itself to statistics, to numbers, to analysis. It also lends itself to passion, emotion, and poetry. And it lends itself to literature and language - from Cardus, to CLR James, to Arlot's commentaries. And Wisden seems to encapsulate that, wrapping it up neatly in that famous little yellow jacket: the records and score cards from last year, whether Test, County, one day or five; the analysis, the succinct encapsulation of another year's cricket ... the anticipation of one to come.

For the release of Wisden is like the first cuckoo - it's time to iron those whites, practice your cover drive, and prepare to take in a game or two. Wisden is an English tradition. More than that, for cricket lovers the world over, it's a statement about respect for the game and its slow pleasures. Whether you follow your county or country from the beer tent, the members' enclosure, or the depths of your couch, Wisden puts you in touch with the game. It transports you back and forth through history ... and it triggers your expectations for the coming year.

And what are the expectations for this coming year? Well, five England cricketers attract the plaudits, reward for a successful few months which few would have predicted a couple of years ago. English cricket is hardly yet back in the ascendancy, but Wisden celebrates the fact that it has escaped the doldrums. However, Australia is on the horizon, and you begin to wonder which players next year's little yellow book will celebrate.

The writing is, as usual, crisp, informative, entertaining. There's analysis, argument, well-penned accounts of the major matches. The page after page of statistics and scores will keep the enthusiast engrossed for months. This is living history. This is a volume which you will treasure forty, fifty years from now. This is a book which will help you look back - "Ah, 2005, that was when ...". Well, of course, we don't know what will happen this year (yet), but Wisden is not just a record book, it is a stimulus of the imagination. You can speculate, intelligently, on who will win this game or that game ... and you can fantasise about stepping out at Lords or Fenners or that barren piece of grass behind the factory. Wisden is dream time reading, a blend of fact and fantasy. And, if you love cricket, you buy this book ... and you know why you buy it without having to read any review.

The best
If you have not got this book any other year it does not matter. This year for the first time in 45 years, five english men have been picked for the five cricketers of the year. They are Robert Key, Marcus Trescothick, Steve Harmison, Ashley Giles, Andrew Strauss. This and last year for England was an exceptional year. This book embarks on there succes. You have to get this book!!!!

Good game
This is a great book. Every cricket lover should have it. I like the way it speaks of the English cricketers and compares with other world players. The book is very informative and very well done. I bought this book the same time I bought The System by Roy Valentine. The System is equally amazing but shows you the secrets of a different game - one that every man needs to learn.