- Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Annual almanack rounds up highs and lows from across the sport last year
By: Amit Roy
THE Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2024 has allocated 77 pages to obituaries to “celebrate 200 lives”, among them Indian legends Bishan Singh Bedi and Salim Aziz Durrani.
The former merits four pages.
Wisden says that Bedi, “who died on October 23, aged 77, was one of a small group of cricketers who played with such grace, elegance and charm that he elevated the game almost to an art form.
“Bedi breathed the same rarefied air as Victor Trumper, David Gower, Michael Holding and Kumar Sangakkara, more likely to make crowds sigh with pleasure than shout in triumph. He was a talisman for India for over a decade, bowling left-am spin of subtle variations, confounding batsmen with a beguiling mix of flight, loop and turn.”
It records that when the English spinner Jim Laker, a legend himself, was asked about his idea of paradise, he replied: “Lord’s bathed in sunshine, with Ray Lindwall bowling from one end, and Bishan Bedi from the other.”
Wisden says Durrani, “who died on April 2, aged 88, was a charismatic Indian left-hander who was restricted by selectorial whim to 29 Tests during a long career. Among those mystified by his lack of recognition was India’s wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer: ‘Durani was an excellent all-rounder, a flamboyant character, a great bowler – in fact I thought he was one of the best. He could turn the ball on any wicket, and was a very attractive batsman. A very entertaining player, and a good-looking chap – he even appeared in a film later on.’
“The crowds in Jaipur loved the attacking approach and laid-back manner of ‘Prince Salim’. In the Indian Express, Sriram Veera said he ‘moved with kings and paupers with remarkable ease – sometimes on the back of his cousin’s Lambretta scooter, in a local train, on the pillion of a bike, or in a posh car with the Maharajah of Jamnagar’.”
This is the 161st edition of Wisden, long regarded as the cricketing bible. There is no other publication quite like it anywhere in the world. It comprises nine sections spread over 1,552 pages.
At one level it is an exercise in pure nostalgia, for looking through it on a lazy afternoon, old men can recall their cricketing school days. Collectors pride themselves on gathering as many editions as possible. The yellow cover is distinctive.
Lawrence Booth, who has been editing Wisden since 2012 while doubling as a cricket writer for the Daily Mail, says in the preface: “It was a momentous year for the women’s game, with the foundation of the Women’s Premier League [WPL] in India and the ECB’s decision to pay female international cricketers as much as the men. Women’s Test cricket has become slightly less invisible, too: for the first time, the Almanack includes a list of births and (where known) deaths of the 719 players who, by the end of 2023, had appeared in the format.”
It so happens Wisden 2024 has come out while the Indian Premier League (IPL) is about two weeks from the playoff stage between the top four franchises.
This version of T20 cricket fills stadiums. Among the owners, the Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan is often seen at Eden Gardens, cheering on players in his Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise. Test cricket, in contrast, played over five days, struggles to attract spectators outside of England and Australia.
India, England and Australia are the richest boards, with India far ahead of everyone else. This is why Booth says the money should be shared more equitably and India has a particular responsibility for safeguarding the future of Test cricket. He urges administrators to distribute funds according to “need, not greed”.
He points out that Test cricket can be very exciting: “It’s nearly 6,000 miles between Brisbane and Hyderabad, but on January 28, 2024, the cities seemed joined at the hip. At the Gabba, Shamar Joseph – a Guyanese fast bowler from the village of Baracara who had once worked in the logging trade – took seven for 68 in his second Test appearance.
“A few hours later, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Tom Hartley – a Lancastrian spinner from the town of Ormskirk previously employed by his family’s horticulture business – took seven for 62 on Test debut.
“West Indies won by eight runs, their first Test victory against Australia in more than 20 years. England, having stunned India by overturning a deficit of 190, won by 28. It was a joy trying to choose the more breathtaking.”
Booth has analysed how the money from cricket is shared by the respective boards: “India’s slice of the pie had grown from less than 25 per cent to 38.5 per cent, or close to $230 million (£184m) a year, leaving the 11 other full members to enjoy percentages ranging from 6.89 (England) to 2.8 (Afghanistan). West Indies receive 4.58 per cent, or $27.5m (£22m).”
Wisden also has a piece, “Modi operandi”, by sports writer Sharda Ugra, on “the politicisation of Indian cricket”.
She alleges: “On one level, the 2023 World Cup was business as usual, confirming the wealth, power and resources available to Indian cricket, and culminating in another title for Australia.
“But there was a parallel tournament, in which the cricket became a platform for the political ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with a sharp focus on amplifying the personality cult of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
“The messaging was easily carried out – Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is the son of the country’s home minister, Amit Shah; naturally, Shah jnr has a direct line to BJP headquarters. With the Indian team playing a thrilling brand of cricket, packing stadiums and grabbing eyeballs, the political messaging stayed on high beam – until the final, that is, when it gave way to a bad aftertaste.
“Had the World Cup been merely about BCCI attempts to control what went out on the global TV feed, the muscleflexing would have been familiar. But this was a different kind of BCCI command-and-control over what, in theory, was an ICC event. By disregarding first the schedules, then the consequences of doing so, the board hijacked the World Cup, and used it – wherever they could – as a propaganda tool for the government.”
This year, Nat Sciver-Brunt becomes the first English woman to be named Wisden’s leading cricketer in the world.
“Nat Sciver-Brunt was the dominant batter in women’s cricket,” said Booth.
She has been paid over £300,000 to play in the WPL. When it was a choice between her country and the WPL, she chose the latter, admitting money was a factor – “Yeah, I mean, I would be lying if I said no”.
Among the men, Pat Cummins is the first Australian to be named leading cricketer in the world since Michael Clarke in 2012.
Harry Brook and Mark Wood of England are among the five cricketers of the year, along with three Australians: Ashleigh Gardner, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Starc.
Another Australian, Travis Head, has won the Wisden Trophy for the year’s best Test performance.
The RRP of both the standard hardback and soft-cover editions of the 2024 Almanack is £60; the large format is priced at £80, and the leatherbound limited edition at £300. Wisden 2024 is also available as an abridged ebook, The Shorter Wisden 2024, containing the best writing from the Almanack, at £17.50.
