Wisden finally merits the epithet ‘Cricket Bible’

The man who christened Wisden ‘The Cricket Bible’ had little religion. Wisden is an unprepossessing sight: a 1,500 page tome surrounded by a flame-yellow dust jacket covered in mud brown lettering. The book’s content often matches its artless appearance; thousands of statistics and scorecards that read like the turgid genealogical passages of Genesis. Abraham begat Isaac; Jack Hobbs scored 61,760 runs.

A record of the chosen people is important; but it does not inspire belief. The record tells you nothing of how Abraham raised Isaac; neither do Hobbs’ stats tell you how he scored his runs. Bald facts contain little mystery, and what do those know of God who know nothing of mystery?

The 150th edition of Wisden defers to its forbears, at least in appearance. The colour-scheme remains defiantly ghastly. The book runs to 1,584 pages, most of which are devoted to statistics that one can find elsewhere. Yet the editor, Lawrence Booth (whose second outing with Wisden this is), has innovated to great effect.