Since then it has become as much a part of the start of summer as the smell of cut grass and linseed oil (as it used to be, back in the day!)
It is THE book to pack in your bag for a day at the cricket. The Playfair Cricket Annual will have its fans, of course, especially if space is at a premium around your sandwiches and sun cream. Yet the newer, expanded version of this annual is simply wonderful.
You get a nice foreword (this time written by writer and broadcaster Annie Chave), a look at each club, their winter signings, prospects and averages from all competitions the previous year. Then there are biographies and career statistics for all of the male players and the top tier women equivalents.
It packs so much into the 672 pages, yet still manages to be very readable for those of us whose eyesight isn't as it once was. For this reader, that's the issue with the modern Wisdens, that there is simply so much cricket played these days that the font size has come down to something below my comfort level. I'm not yet at the magnifying sheet stage, but I am sure you take my point.
Where else could you find out that Amrit Basra is fiercely competitive about Articulate, the board game (me too..!)? Or that Ben Aitchison's nickname is 'Biggen'? Or that Caleb Jewell has two 'sausage dogs', while Luis Reece loves a game of Mario Kart?
You could talk to them, of course, but this is a book that shows the 'human' side of those who play the game at elite level.
Which they all are, like you and me. Just ordinary people whose work we envy, admire and follow avidly. Some are more forthcoming with their likes, dislikes, interests and ambitions, but this is a book into which you can dip and find something every time.
I just wonder if Harry Came and Ben Aitchison know that they are part of a fantasy slip cordon of Sam Conners, alongside himself and...Tiger Woods!
Highly recommended
The Cricketers' Who's Who 2026 is published by Fairfield Books and is available from all good book shops
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