A veritable mine of information: over 1500 pages of facts and figures. New Zealand Cricket Almanack, now in its 66th edition, has become indispensable to followers of the game. Francis Payne and Ian Smith must be congratulated for bringing out this outstanding annual year after year

2013 New Zealand Cricket Almanack contains all the details of another full year of cricket at all levels, including extensive coverage of all the Black Caps' and White Ferns' matches.

The Almanack's coverage of domestic cricket includes the Plunket Shield and an expanded men's Twenty20 competition, while Hawke Cup and age-group cricket is also included.

Peter Fulton and Tim Southee have been named as Players of the Year while Mitchell McClenaghan, Daryl Mitchell and Craig Munro have been selected as Promising Players.

New Zealand, according to Payne and Smith, made tours to India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and England during the past twelve months while the popular England side and its even more popular army of supporters came to New Zealand. The Black Caps took part in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy, which was staged in conjunction with their tour to England. The White Ferns also went to Sri Lanka for the World Twenty20 and later to India for the fifty-over World Cup and had their regular contest with Australia for the Rose Bowl.

Payne and Smith have meticulously compiled a detailed records' section, covering Tests, ODIs, Twenty20 Internationals, First-class cricket and Women's Cricket.

The season's happenings, as in the previous years, is the highlight of this outstanding Almanack. The statistical highlights, covered in this section, are not to be seen in any other cricket publication and website. Some of the interesting Happenings covered in this Almanack are:

• Stuart Broad took 103 minutes before scoring his first run in the third Test at Auckland during England's long rearguard action on the final day in March 2013. This was the longest any batsman had stayed on nought in Test history. Geoff Allott survived for 101 minutes before being dismissed for 0 by his 77th ball against South Africa at Auckland in 1998-99.
  
  
• Jamie How now has a record that is unique in the entire history of cricket. He is the only player to have participated in a quadruple century stand in first-class cricket, a triple century stand in one-day cricket and a double century stand in Twenty20 matches. In addition to his 321-run partnership with Raval in the Ford Trophy, How shared a 201-run stand with Peter Ingram for Central Districts against Wellington in the HRV Cup in 2011-12 and a partnership of 428 with Ingram, again against Wellington, in the Plunket Shield in the 2009-10 season. All the partnerships were for the first wicket.
  
  
• Bruce Martin made his Test debut against England at Dunedin, having previously played in 115 first-class games. This is the most number of games any New Zealander has played before playing Test Cricket.