Wisden Almanack can relieve lockdown boredom

HUWZAT ON WEDNESDAY: Editor Lawrence Booth explains why the perennial favourite has a '20-year rule'

• More from Huw Turbervill

Almanack is a lovely word, isn’t it?

It means a publication that comes out once a year. There used to be a lot of them, but then the word ‘annual’ became more fashionable and only a few survive.

These include Farmers’ Almanac; Whitaker’s Almanack (not the ruminations of former national selector James but an eclectic reference book); and Old Moore’s Almanack (astrological/predictions/tide times).

There is only one Almanack in cricket, however, the broad yellow ‘Bible of cricket’, the Wisden Cricketers’, and it’s about to be published again, on Thursday. It’s the 157th edition, and the ninth to be edited by Lawrence Booth.

At 1,536 pages long, it should help to fill the weeks and maybe months of lockdown ahead.

Booth, 45, says: "People have been telling me they are glad to receive it, to read about last summer, happier times. It also feels like the closest we get to live sport."

He assures me that the COVID-19 crisis hasn’t put too much of a spanner in the works in terms of this latest edition.

“We pressed the button on February 27 when there were only 16 cases of the virus in the country,” he said.

“We are more of a review than a preview, though, so 98–99 per cent of our content still stands. Even the bits that have been affected are still excellent. Nick Hoult has written a tremendous piece of reportage about how The Hundred came in to being and even if the competition doesn’t start this summer now it’s still interesting.”

And what about next year? How are they going to fill it with either little or no cricket in the summer of 2020?

"It won't be the same size, but how much thinner it will be depends on how much cricket there is," he says. "We will possibly need to be inventive in how we fill it, but two months' cricket will do! The ones in World War Two were about 400 pages. I guess probably it will be between that and 1,536!"

^{Wisden Almanack editor Lawrence Booth with England captain Joe Root}

Also generating plenty of interest is an article with accompanying table that sees all the counties’ points added up for their finishes in the County Championship, NatWest Trophy and equivalents, Benson & Hedges Cup, Sunday/National League and T20 Cup/Blast since 1963.

They decided to give 14/10/6/2 to the teams who finished in the top four of the Championship, and 8/6/4/2 to the league winners.

Thanks to the serialisations in the Daily Mail, we know that Lancashire finished on top. I make the point that it should be 16/12/8/4 for the Championship. That would put Warwickshire on top, from what I can see.

“It’s subjective,” says Booth. “We discussed various ways of doing it. No one way is right.”

Emma John has also written an interesting piece about becoming a female member of MCC, while Tanya Aldred tackles the subject of transgender participation in cricket.

There are no ground-breaking changes to the composition of the book this year, though.

Not like 2003, when Tim de Lisle – the George Lazenby of Almanack editors – gave it a facelift, only for some of the changes to be revoked the following year. What survived was having a picture on the cover, however.

“Some said it was blasphemy at the time,” said Booth, “but it was here to stay. We reveal the cover in January and it’s become a talking point – a big thing! When I told Jos Buttler he was on the cover this time he was delighted.”

Booth’s predecessor Scyld Berry, also made history by naming a woman, Clare Taylor, as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2009. “Ellyse Perry becomes the seventh this year,” says Booth. The other four this time are Jofra Archer, Pat Cummins, Simon Harmer and Marnus Labuschagne.

Booth has introduced a women’s cricket section during his tenure, plus a T20 domestic overseas section.

“It doesn’t go down all that well with a few of our readers who just want to read about county cricket but we have to move with the times. We also run a writing competition in which we received about 80-100 entries, and Tanya also writes about cricket and the environment. We like to think we are showing the socially conscience side of the game.”

The Almanack first appeared in 1864, 26 years before Wisden says the Championship officially began. Booth says that despite the global decline in print publications sales are fine, with many still eagerly adding to their collections each year.

For one day a year – tomorrow – the Wisden editor sets the news agenda with the publication of his notes. “Wisden is given a bit of a pulpit and the editor’s notes make headlines around the world,” says Booth.

^{Ben Stokes is Wisden's leading cricketer in the world}

He also defends serialising it in newspapers. For years it was in the Times and Telegraph, and this is the first year in the Mail. “It shows people a bit of our hand,” says Booth. “Many think of us just as a reference book but we have 250 pages of top-quality writing at the front of the book.”

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison bowled him a googly in 2018. He penned an article on the ECB’s new tournament without mentioning that it wouldn’t be T20, but would be 100 balls per innings instead – even though the ECB had been considering this for six months.

Harrison told Booth “communication could have been better”, and the Wisden editor has some sympathy – “I guess he that felt he couldn’t reveal it.”

The window between pressing ‘send’ and the book appearing is six weeks. “What can you do?” said Booth.

“We missed the Cape Town ball tampering in 2018 and when we came out it was the talk of the town, but actually this allowed us to step back and tackle it properly in 2019. You have to take a long view. We have what we call a ‘20-year rule’. What will people think in two decades’ time?”

Nine years is a decent knock by Booth, who says it was one of three cricket jobs he dreamt about growing up – the others being cricket correspondent of the Telegraph and Times. He has some way to go before he eclipses Sydney Pardon (35 years) and Norman Preston (28).

“I’d be worried if I caught up with them,” he said. “It means I haven’t done things in my life that I still want to do. I am not ready to give it up yet, though, and it dovetails with my job on the Mail, alongside cricket correspondent Paul Newman.”

Rumours suggest Simon Wilde might be in line to succeed him. “There is no succession in place as far as I know.”

One imagines it is a difficult job to let go of.

Random Wisden Almanack facts

• Ben Stokes is Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World this year – the first Englishman since Andrew Flintoff in 2005. He ends a hat-trick of wins for Virat Kohli.
• The plan for the book is on an Excel spread sheet – with a line explaining what is on each page. Booth’s co-editor/No2 is Hugh Chevallier. Harriet Monkhouse, Richard Whitehead and Latvia-based Steven Lynch make up the rest of the team. Most work remotely with lots of Skype meetings, until the last two weeks in Bungay on the Suffolk/Norfolk border where they gather to go through all the pages with a fine toothcomb.
• Almanack pages are printed in batches of six. “We were on 1,542, but went down to 1,536, and we also had a plan in place to go up to 1548,” says Booth. “We give ourselves wriggle room.”

The 2020 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is published by Bloomsbury. The hardback is £55.00; the ebook and audiobook cost £9.99.