The Cricketers' Who's Who 2023

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Murtagh and his Middlesex teammates would no doubt have a chuckle at the assortment of perms, combovers and luxuriously meaty sideburns on offer in the early 1980s editions. More than 400 (nearly but not quite all) players who make up the 18-county system, as well as all the contracted women’s players, have answered questions ranging from the thorny (“Which bowler would you least like to face?

This year’s foreword comes courtesy of Middlesex legend Tim Murtagh, the epitome of a county cricketer.

Katherine Brunt wrote movingly in the 2020 edition about her experiences of coming out: “You shouldn’t have to live your life behind closed doors because you are ashamed of who you are. He has been a match-winner in every format throughout his career, however, and has proven to be a transformative captain. To others the book will provide heart and soul and colour to the black and white names on the scorecard. Since Lord’s failed to sell out their Test match against New Zealand last summer, the subject of ticket pricing for international cricket has been a hot topic.

In 2022, the Christchurch-born all-rounder took over the Test captaincy and transformed England from one of the world’s worst teams to an unstoppable force, reinventing the way the world thinks about the five-day game in the process.You wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that Mike Hendrick put his long seamer’s fingers to candlestick making come November (close … he did in fact work for the electricity board). Or we’d open it just to see who’s had the dodgiest haircut or to read out some of the amusing comments. Incredibly, most players even listed their personal address and landline number, in case, say, a fan in the shires wanted to ring up their county captain and enquire as to why they weren’t picking their frontline spinner. Not only are players’ heights listed (as they are in current editions) but weight too; some of the less lissom no doubt rounding down their stats before sending them to Sproat. Read our Privacy Policy to give you more detailed information about your rights and how we use your data.

Back in 1980 the Conservative MP Iain Sproat had the same problem when he compiled and edited the first edition of CWW, although there were no media managers around then to do his bidding. The 43rd edition tells you all you need to know about every player from all 18 counties and includes an expanded woman's section to take in the growing number of professional female cricketers as well as the England Women Squad. The move was disastrous for Sproat, pushing him into the political wilderness for the next nine years, but did at least mean he could concentrate on CWW. Kent’s Darren Stevens is invariably cited by fellow players in The Cricketer’s’ Who’s Who as the bowler they would least like to face.Rabada has excelled across all three formats, with the pace and bounce to be effective even on surfaces which don’t offer much for the quick bowler.

As I travel the country I come across an older generation who assure me the game isn’t what it was,” wrote Botham in 1981, a few months before he went on to make that summer his own. We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. Wisden 2023 is the 160th edition of the most famous sports book in the world – published every year since 1964.View image in fullscreen Ian Botham in 1981, the year he warned in his Cricketers’ Who’s Who entry of the dangers of ‘playing too many matches’. Joe Root’s averages are not as gaudy as some of the other elite batters around the world, but much of that can be attributed to playing so much of his cricket on challenging English pitches. The 44th edition tells you all you need to know about every player from all 18 counties and includes an expanded women's section to take in the new female cricketers who turned professional last year as well as the England Women squad. The pages of The Cricketers’ Who’s Who 2022 reveal the interesting, insightful, sometimes hilarious and often off-the-wall world of English cricket. The 43rd edition of The Cricketers’ Who’s Who tells you all you need to know about every player from all 18 counties, as well as the contracted women’s players.