In county cricket, 81 per cent of balls are bowled at slower than 82 mph

In county cricket, 81 per cent of balls are bowled at slower than 82 mph, and almost no deliveries are above 88 mph. Compare that to Test cricket, where over 60 per cent of the balls bowled are over 82 mph and 17 per cent are over 88 mph. We also move from bouncers making up 4 per cent of balls bowled in county cricket, to nearly three times that many in Test cricket (11 per cent).

N. Leamon & B. Jones, Hitting Against the Spin: How Cricket Really Works (2021), loc.827

People have been dreaming about reviving American cricket ever since it died during the Civil War

People have been dreaming about reviving American cricket ever since it died during the Civil War, 160 years ago. It was killed by a shortage of pitches, kit and coaching, and by the rise of baseball, the great American pastime. Baseball had two advantages. It was easier to play - all you needed was a bat, a ball, four bases and a field - and if you were good at it, you could make a lot more money. Plenty of professional crickets made the switch.

A. Bull, 'Cricket in the USA: the American dream', in L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2025), 122

From the age of 30, he took 436 Test wickets at 24

Even accounting for that series [2023Ashes], Anderson had grown old with astonishing grace  From the age of 30, he took 436 Test wickets at 24 - a total surpassed by only nine others in their entire career. From 35, he took 224 at 22, the bowling equivalent of Jack Hobbs's 100 first class hundreds after the age of 40. And since turning 40 himself, Anderson took 47 at 27.

L. Booth, 'Notes from the Editor', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2025), 18

Women say this sort of thing carelessly, with no wish to wound; but that makes it none the less hard to bear

'Oh, I am glad you have begun to take an interest in cricket. It is simply a social necessity in England. Why you ever made such a fuss about taking it up I can't think. You used to be so fond of watching baseball, and cricket is just the same thing.'

A close observer would have marked a deepening of the look of pain on Mr Crocker's face. Women say this sort of thing carelessly, with no wish to wound; but that makes it none the less hard to bear. 

P.G Wodehouse, Piccadilly Jim (1918), 39-40

Change in to white flannels, play from midday to sundown, breaking only for a cold lunch and a pint or two in the pavilion

Every summer weekend during this opulent decade, young men from the City, or the Imperial Civil Service, or the newspaper and magazine world of Fleet Street and the Strand, would take the train to some nearby provincial town, Tunbridge Wells perhaps, or Stevenage. There, they would throw their heavy cricket bags onto the horse-drawn carriage awaiting them at the station, then rattle through leafy summer lanes to the ground, change in to white flannels, play from midday to sundown, breaking only for a cold lunch and a pint or two in the pavilion, before returning to the City in the fading light of summer.

R. McCrum, Wodehouse: a life (2004), 77

Al-Qaeda, by contrast, never played cricket and favoured volleyball

So cricket is one of the rare things which can bring the Pakistan military and the Taliban together, in what amounts to a temporary ceasefire. For example, it is not unknown for army bulldozers to clear the wickets of debris at the start, and for the Taliban to provide security while tournaments are under way. My informants told me that the Al-Qaeda, by contrast, never played cricket and favoured volleyball. They also liked football - but never cricket.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 411-2

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history. Of the 33 players recorded as making their Test debut before the age of eighteen, 15 are Pakistanis.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 386

In the wake of the 1992 World Cup triumph, the historian of Pakistan cricket begins to feel sympathy with Edward Gibbon as he came to terms with the final centuries of the Roman Empire

In the wake of the 1992 World Cup triumph, the historian of Pakistan cricket begins to feel sympathy with Edward Gibbon as he came to terms with the final centuries of the Roman Empire. It becomes necessary to deal with a succession of short-lived rulers, installed, deposed and occasionally reinstalled after regular revolts from the legions. While the army remains full of soldiers of the highest quality, still capable of famous victories, too often it is fatally undermined by indiscipline and corruption.  

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 347

This was simply not cricket, but it did not matter as long as you did not lose

Shuja-ud-Din, who played in this poignant contest, recorded: 'This was simply not cricket, but it did not matter as long as you did not lose.'

...

It was becoming evident that Tests between Pakistan and India had developed a unique sensibility. Those who ere normal became slightly mad. Those who were already troubled were temporarily blinded with a kind of insanity.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 109

White West Indians have produced more first-class players per thousand of their population than any other community anywhere

Racial generalizations - about certain people being good at ball games - won't help. There has been no West African cricketer; the only Chinese cricketers of standing have come from Trinidad; and, though the fact is seldom noticed, white West Indians have produced more first-class players per thousand of their population than any other community anywhere. Consider now the history of the islands: slavery until 1834, indentured labour until 1917. And then consider the cricket code: gentlemanliness, fair play, teamwork. The very words are tired and, in the West Indian situation, ridiculous, irrelevant. But they filled a need. In islands that had known only brutality and proclaimed greed, cricket and its code provided an area of rest, a release for much that was denied by the society: skill, courage, style: the graces, the very things that a changed world are making the game archaic.   

V.S. Naipaul, 'The Caribbean flavour' (1963), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 433-4

This game could be laid up in heaven, a Platonic idea of cricket in perfection.

If some good fairy were to ask me to pick out one match of all I have seen, to relive it as I lived it as the time when it happened, my choice would be easy: England v. Australia at Lord's in June 1930. I was at the prime of forty years then, fulfilled in work and happy in home, love and health, the mind still unstaled, yet critical enough. This game could be laid up in heaven, a Platonic idea of cricket in perfection. It was limited to four days and finished at five o'clock on the closing afternoon; 1,601 runs were scored and 29 wickets fell. Bradman batted in a Test match at Lord's for the first time, scoring 254 in his first innings. England batted first and made 425, but lost by 7 wickets. Glorious sunshine blessed every moment's play. London was at its most handsome; 1914 forgotten and 1939 not yet casting a shadow for all to see. I can still catch the warmth and the animation of the scene, feel the mind's and the senses' satisfaction. I can see Grimmett bowling, his arm as low as my grandfather's, his artfulness as acute, and I can still see Chapman as he played one of the most gallant and dazzling and precarious innings which has ever cocked a snook at an Australian team ready and impatient to put to rout and ruin an England team apparently in the last ditch, the ghost about to be given up.

N. Cardus, 'The ideal cricket match' (1956), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 317-8

If he ever went after the role of an emperor, the price of the second favourite a the audition would be 33-1 and drifting

His [Viv Richards] demeanour at such moments has been described as insouciant, but regal might be nearer the mark. The downward curve of the fine nose, the level gaze, the wide expressive mouth within the handsome beard - all combine to indicate that if he ever went after the role of an emperor, the price of the second favourite a the audition would be 33-1 and drifting.

H. McIlvanney, 'Black is beautiful' (1985), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 202

Miller is as an Olympian god among mortals

To young eyes, quickest to perceive the things that make cricket, Miller is as an Olympian god among mortals. He brings boys' dreams to life He is the cricketer they would all like to be, the one who can hit more gloriously and bowl faster than anybody on earth. When Neville Cardus called him a young eagle among crows and daws Miller was not a champion playing out of his class; sharing the field were him were the elect of the world's two greatest cricketing countries, Bradman, Hammond and bearers of other famous names, Compton and other men of personality

Masculine as Tarzan, he plays lustily. Style suffuses his cricket with glowing power, personality charges it with daring and knocks bowling and convention sky-high. 

R. Robinson, 'Touch of a Hero' (1951), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 126

Alexander the Great needed four months to capture Multan in 325 BCE ... It took Ben Stokes three and a half days

Alexander the Great needed four months to capture Multan in 325 BCE, and was hit by an arrow that nearly killed him. It took Ben Stokes three and a half days, despite a touch of flu. By presiding over victory in perhaps the region's most ancient city, he achieved what no cricketing general from English shores ever had - a second successive Test win in Pakistan, and the chance of a whitewash. 

D. Wilson, 'Pakistan v England: second test', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2023), 411

Mostly, though, I think it's because Ukraine is always interested in ideas that help it to identify with cultures that aren't Russian

Cricket's popularity spread to schools across the country until, by the end of the 2010s, it was a staple of many PE classes. Why does Hardeep think it struck such a chord? "In part, it's because cricket is a sport that can be played by boys and girls together up to a certain age. In part it's because you can play it on a football pitch. Mostly, though, I think it's because Ukraine is always interested in ideas that help it to identify with cultures that aren't Russian. Cricket helps connect Ukraine to India, Pakistan, Australia, England..."

A. Preston, 'Anything but Russia', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2023), 49

His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that

At Lord's, England pulled two surprises. The first was Denness's resignation as captain and replacement by Greig. The second was the call-up of Northamptonshire's David Steele, hoping for a dose of nominative determinism. Grey-haired, bespectacled and 33 years old, Steele looked an unlikely saviour. His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that. The tabloid press likened him to a bank manager; Lillee nicknamed him "Groucho". 

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 80

All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day

MCC, exasperated after the Queen had missed play in all three Lord's Tests she was scheduled to attend since the previous Ashes, arranged for her to visit on the first day [22 June 1961]. All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day: the Monday after the rest day. She returned to this pattern the following year.

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 40

Popular imagination likes its fast bowlers to be ale swilling extroverts

Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards and John Augustine Snow, poet, thinker, introvert would surely be one of the last to disagree with the Old Arab proverb. Assaulted on the boundary edge of a great Test arena, dropped by his county for lack of effort, stood in a corner by England's selectors for barging over an Indian Test batsman at Lord's and while all this was swirling around him, writing and getting published a volume of poems -- controversy, thy name was Snow, in the early 1970's. Popular imagination likes its fast bowlers to be ale swilling extroverts, but this enigmatic cricketer refuses to be typed ... reading, music, painting, poetry are as necessary to him as food and fresh air ... He owes his inclusion in one of the most coveted sections of this Almanack to none of these things. He is here on naked merit, which first played a major part in bringing The Ashes back home to England after an absence of twelve years and then helped keep them here last summer. A haul of 55 wickets in two series against Australia is his passport to cricket immortality. 

B. Easterbrook, 'FIFTY YEARS AGO: John Snow', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2022), 1483

Looking up the original 1973 Cricketers of the year text, I discover this also brilliant anecdote: At the England team's Harrogate hotel during the fourth Test at Leeds last July, Basil d'Oliveira in an animated dinner table conversation said to him "The ultimate thing in life is to play for England." Snow replied quietly "The ultimate thing in life is death."

There's a woman in there!

Change hurts. The Daily Telegraph's E.W. "Jim" Swanton once burst out of the committee room here at Lord's, exclaiming in a hoarse and outraged whisper, "There's a woman in there!" "Yes, Jim, of course there is," it was the explained. "It's the Saturday of the Ashes Test. It's the Queen." Jim absorbed this for a second, before coming back with "Nevertheless..."

S. Fry, 'MCC Cowdrey lecture',  L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2022), 124

Asked to name the current players he admired, he replied: "None."

Where the dreamy Dexter enjoyed flights of fancy, Ray Illingworth was the canny Yorkshireman. Asked by The Cricketer around the time of his appointment to name the current players he admired, he replied: "None." Nothing during his reign [as chair of selectors] suggested a change of heart.

R. Hobson, 'A history of selection', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2022), 95