page_title: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 1864 Wisden Front Cover (owned by wisdens.org)
context_page_description: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, or simply Wisden, colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a review for the London Mercury. In October 2013, an all-time Test World XI was announced to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
  In 1998, an Australian edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was launched. It ran for eight editions.
  In 2012, an Indian edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was launched, entitled Wisden India Almanack, that has been edited by Suresh Menon since its inception.
context_section_description: Wisden was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden (1826–84) as a competitor to Fred Lillywhite's The Guide to Cricketers. Its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. The sixth edition was the first published under its current title; the first five were published as The Cricketer's Almanack, with the apostrophe before the "s".
  Charles Pardon, with George Kelly King, founded the Cricket Reporting Agency (CRA) in 1880. From Pardon's becoming editor of Wisden in 1887, the editor was nearly always a CRA partner and the CRA was responsible for the editorial production of the Almanack, until in 1965 it merged with the Press Association (PA).
  Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwell's publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, in the 1970s. Cricket fan Sir John Paul Getty, Jr., bought the company, John Wisden & Co., in 1993 and in December 2008 it was sold to A&C Black, which is owned by Bloomsbury. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies, in 1963 to celebrate its 100th edition.
  In 2013, a history of Wisden was published: The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden, by Robert Winder (ISBN 978-1408136263). "The Little Wonder" was John Wisden's nickname.
caption: 1864 Wisden front cover, provided by Wisdens.org
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