The 153rd edition of the most famous sports book in the world and long-lived cricket world's bible, in its familiar yellow and brown cover and with all the usual indispensable features, is out.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2016, released recently, has named Kane Williamson as 'The Leading Cricketer in the World' for 2015. He is the first New Zealander and the eleventh recipient of the award, the previous ten being Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis, Virender Sehwag (2009 & 2010), Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara (2011 & 2014), Michael Clarke and Dale Steyn.
Ending his Test year as he commenced with (69 & 242 not out vs Sri Lanka at Wellington in January and 1 & 108 not out vs Sri Lanka at Hamilton in December), Williamson's International tally in 2015 was a staggering 2692 (ave.65.65) in 46 innings, including eight hundreds and 14 fifties - 323 ahead of second-placed Steven Smith (2369 at an average of 65.80 including eight hundreds and eleven fifties in 42 innings)and the third highest aggregate in a calendar year
Kane Williamson, Jonny Bairstow, Brendon McCullum, Steven Smith and Ben Stokes have been named as five Cricketers of the Year.
Editing Wisden for the fifth time, Lawrence Booth, the Almanack's editor, in his notes, says: "Day/Night Test cricket must be given a chance, even in countries where we're continually told it can't work. If English crowds can sit through chilly floodlit one-dayers in September, why can't they cope in June, July and August?"
New Zealand's Suzie Bates has been named the Leading Woman Cricketer of the World in 2015. Raf Nicholson says she has consolidated her status as one of the power hitters of the women's game.But the highlight was her sixth one-day century, made in the victory over England in February. Booth commented: “It needed something special to deny both Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry this award, and Bates’s all-round performances were precisely that.”
In a Crime and Punishment section - ICC Code of Conduct - Breaches and Penalties in 2014-15 to 2015-16, four Indians figure - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ishant Sharma (three times) and Murali Vijay and team Manager Vinod Phadke
The Obituaries section includes the obituaries of Richie Benaud, Brian Close, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Tom Graveney, Arthur Morris, Clive Rice, Anand Shukla and Frank Tyson. The said section overall runs to 69 pages.
The Cricket Round the World section, 2016 compiled by James Coyne and Timothy Abraham is more extensive than ever.
The Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year is Ben Waring, of Felsted School, who captured 68 wickets at 9.23 apiece with his left-arm spin. The Wisden Book of the Year is The Test, by Simon Jones and Jon Hotten. The winner of the Wisden–MCC cricket photograph of the year is Robert Cianflone. And the winner of Wisden’s writing competition is Will Beaudouin.
The text is adorned with some superb colour photographs. A lavish production, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2016 provides all the facts and figures of a year, meticulously compiled by Philip Bailey. Many happy hours can be spent absorbing the endless data.