John Wisden

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John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 190 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. He is now best known for launching the eponymous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.

Wisden was born at 15 Hampden Place, Brighton, but moved to London after his father Thomas died. Although of moderate height (5 ft 6 in), Wisden was said to be the best all-rounder of his day. He made his first-class debut for Sussex in 1845 aged 18, weighing only 7 stone. Initially a fast round-arm bowler, his pace slowed in later years. While bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10 wickets in every game. In 1850, playing for the South against the North at Lord's, he took all 10 wickets in the second innings, all clean bowled (still the only instance of all ten wickets being taken "bowled" in any first-class match). In all, he took 1,109 first-class wickets with a bowling average of 6.66 He was also a fine batsman (4,140 first-class runs with a batting average of 14.12). He scored only two centuries, the first in 1849 and the second was the only century scored in 1855.

He played almost all of his cricket in England, including many games in the County Championship, but he travelled with a touring team led by George Parr to Canada and the U.S. in 1859, where eight matches in Montreal, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Hamilton and Rochester were won easily. Since 1855 Wisden had been in partnership with Fred Lillywhite, who organised the North American tour. They ran a tobacconist and sports outfitting business in London's West End, but this did not survive the trip.

He retired from cricket in 1863 at the relatively early age of 37 as a result of rheumatism; he started publishing his annual cricketers' almanac the next year. In later years, he began selling cricket equipment in Leamington Spa in 1850 and opened a "cricket and cigar shop" near the Haymarket in 1872. He died of cancer in Westminster, aged 57.

He was posthumously selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1913, 50 years after his retirement from first-class cricket.

[edit] External links

• Player Profile: John Wisden from Cricinfo

[edit] References

• Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
• Scores and Biographies by Arthur Haygarth
• The Hamlyn A-Z of Cricket Records by Peter Wynne-Thomas (PWT) – includes 1859 touring team photo