Cricket: Cricket's Bible confounds the powers of darkness

By DON CAMERON

The forces of darkness seem to be gathering round the grand old game of cricket. By the time the International Cricket Council meet next week, this most complex but at best most uncomplicated of games will be beset by scandals of match-fixing or bookmaker influence.

But fear not. Amid the deepening gloom there comes a shaft of golden light, a glowing signal that one pillar of the game remains unbesmirched, that 137 years of cricketing history will not be lightly discarded.

In the French autumn they make much fuss about the arrival of the first of the season's beaujolais in Paris. But not with half the heart or joy that greets the arrival, in the English spring and other climates around the world, of the latest copy of Wisden.

The chunky almanac, 1600 pages and weighing at a whisker over 700g, retains all its old virtues and this year two bonuses marking the arrival of the new millennium.

The first is the election of the five players of the 1900-1999 century, a mammoth task largely organised by Matthew Engel, the retiring editor.

The second is a free supplement, a separate 208-page softcover book, which contains an extract from every edition over the past 100 years.

Christopher Lane, who edited the collection, explains that he could only provide glimpses of the themes and theories and all the other cricketing interest in the past 100 years. But in these days when - if you can find one - a collection of the 137 editions of the venerable almanac can cost about $80,000, Lane's saunter down cricketing history is still intriguing compensation.

Engel's description of the hunt for the five players of the century is equally fascinating.

Sir Donald Bradman was picked by all 100 judges, spread round the cricketing world, 97 men and three women. Sir Garfield Sobers scored 90, Sir Jack Hobbs 30, the unknighted Shane Warne 27 and Sir (by Antiguan Government decree) Vivian Richards 25.

Another knight, Sir Richard Hadlee, was 10th and the only New Zealander in this lustrous list.

Many people have quibbled that "W.G." should have been on the list, but Engel said Grace was largely a player of the previous century, and had issued the solitary order to the judges - "do not say W.G. Grace."

New Zealanders might complain that in the almanac Steven Lynch's list of 100 special matches over the century does not include any involving New Zealand teams.

As it happened, the smaller book fell open, as I laid it down, at the 1956 section, which dealt with New Zealand's 26 against England at Eden Park the previous year. And that was New Zealand's only mention.

Perhaps history, or the new editor, Graeme Wright, a New Zealander, will treat us more kindly. Wright had already had a six-year span as editor, before Engel. He might not be enchanted that a month or so after his reappointment Wright finds himself involved in the diabolical match-fixing business.

But doubtless Wright will continue the progress that this marvellous record of cricket has made since John Wisden made a start in 1864, and will realise that Wisden holds a special fascination for New Zealanders.

We can open it up in April and - ignoring all such nasty matters as match-fixing in cricket and All Black leadership in rugby and the fickle frigidity of the New Zealand winter - simply keep on reading. By the time page 1600 is reached, and not one page or note is overlooked, it will be about September and another cricketing summer will be on the front doorstep.