SAMPLE EDITION SUMMER26 2019 THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY ISSUE 26 – SUMMER 2019 introduces issue 26 of the Nightwatchman Cricket’s past has been enriched by great writing and Wisden is making sure its future Matt Thacker will be too. The Nightwatchman is a quarterly collection of essays and long-form articles and Rob Steen was there at the 1975 final is available in print and e-book formats. Nicholas Brookes on Sri Lanka’s spirited showing at the first World Cup Co-edited by Anjali Doshi and Tanya Aldred, with Matt Thacker as managing editor, The Nightwatchman features an array of authors from around the world, writing beautifully and Harry Pearson took an immediate liking to the East Africans at length about the game and its myriad offshoots. Contributors are given free rein over subject matter and length, escaping the pressures of next-day deadlines and the despair Luke Alfred and Tristan Holme reveal Zimbabwe’s heady 1983 exertions of cramming heart and soul into a few paragraphs. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan dissects one of India’s most important innings There are several different ways to get hold of and enjoy The Nightwatchman. You can subscribe to the print version and get a free digital copy for when you’re travelling light. David Frith ate his words back in 1983 If you don’t have enough room on your book case, you can always take out a digital-only uses the West indies v India final as his jumping-off point subscription. Or if you’d just like to buy a single issue – in print, digital or both – you can Simon Barnes do that too. Take a look at the options below and decide which is best for you. Joe Wilson digs out some old stickers Derek Pringle tells us what the 1992 Word Cup was really like SUMMER26 2019 SPRING5 2014 SPRING5 2014SPRING5 2014 Scott Oliver on what the 1999 tournament revealed about England Full subscription Digital subscription NightwatchmanNightwatchmanNightwatchman THE WISDENTHE WISDEN CRICKET CRICKET QUARTERLY QUARTERLY Annual e-book only THE WISDEN CRICKETTHE QUARTERLY WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY Annual print Nightwatchman Hold it high! – 11 World-Cup winning moments subscription (with subscription free e-book versions) £15 Telford Vice tells South Africa’s World Cup tales of woe £29.95 (+P&P) Click to Buy Click to Buy Dylan Cleaver gets a blow-by-blow account of the World Cup’s highest score Bertus de Jong laments the treatment of the Associate nations Jonathan Liew looks at the ever-changing format of the World Cup Adam Collins has a soft spot for the Super Six stage SUMMER26 2019 Kamran Abbasi on Pakistan’s relationship with the World Cup Digital single copy Single copy NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY Mike Selvey is open-mouthed at the improvements in fielding Single issue Single issue (with (e-book only) free with free Andy Zaltzman lifts the lid on the dramatic changes in World Cup scoring rates £4 e-book version) £10 (+P&P) Click to Buy Click to Buy THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN A BRUSH WITH GLORY Derek Pringle on the last time England reached a World Cup final It is just over 27 years since England That final, despite me needing to pass last contested a cricket World Cup a late fitness test on an injured side, final. I know; I was there. was no different. The hot, still air in the stadium, made denser but not Melbourne was the city, MCG the stadium, turbulent by 90,000 spectators (most and Pakistan the other team – one that were Aussies and fairly neutral when proved our nemesis on the day to consign confronted with whom to support us, or at least some of the team like between England and Pakistan), was captain Graham Gooch, to a third runners- perfect for my outswingers, which up place in World Cups in 13 years. quickly brought me the wickets of Aamer Sohail and Ramiz Raja. They say it is the injustices that stay with you and to a certain degree they Ramiz was given out lbw by umpire are right. In that final Pakistan made Steve Bucknor, though whether this 249 batting first but it might have prejudiced the later case against Javed been a lot fewer if Javed Miandad had I have no idea. Whatever the reason, he been given out lbw, not once but twice, dismissed both my appeals after Javed before he’d reached double figures (he twice played around balls heading for went on to make 58). the stumps, the general consensus being that at least one of them was On both occasions I was the bowler. striking middle about two-thirds of the That World Cup saw a different new, way up. white Kookaburra ball used at each end and not only that: a Kookaburra ball Certainly Javed felt that one of the that swung, at least for conventional shouts was out, something he made swingers like me. plain to me after the match when I went THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN to congratulate him and Imran Khan on Ian “Beefy” Botham, who’d both with Robin Smith, who was sponsored If allowed to, little things like that can Pakistan’s triumph. “Allah smile on me contested their first World Cup final by Bolle, their response being to niggle away at team harmony, but today,” he said, tapping his left leg. in 1979, was crushing. There was provide him with a boxful of shades to we remained steadfast in our clean more than the odd tear shed in the dispense among the lads. clothes. Obviously it helps if everyone Did I feel terribly wronged by Bucknor’s dressing-room afterwards. rubs along well together but it is not intransigence? I accepted product from both men essential. Providing each player knows For two great players like them, as but wore neither during matches as his role and fulfils it consistently well, No, not really. well as Allan Lamb, the sense that this I’d always believed that sunglasses the team project usually trundles along last chance for glory had been missed reduce visual acuity. I mean, if nicely. And most did. Was I upset? must have cut deep, especially when batsmen don’t wear them for batting it was snatched away by a team we’d (and most don’t), why do they wear England had a good mix of attitudes At the time, yes (I queried Bucknor’s dismissed for a paltry 74 in the group them in the field? I was something of for that World Cup, especially in judgment in terms that would have stage only for rain to save them. But an evangelist about it and remember their approach to risk. At one end brought me a big fine today). for a freakish day’s precipitation in having a go at Smith after he’d taken of the scale you had Beefy Botham drought-stricken Adelaide, Pakistan possession of Bolle’s swankiest model and his sanguine, blood-and-thunder Yet any sense of inequity had passed would not have reached the knock- just before our group match against approach, a bit like the “play without by the time the trophy was lifted by out stage. South Africa. fear” philosophy trotted out by Morgan Imran and we did a lap of honour to and his team now. For all that, Beefy thank our loyal supporters for travelling It is fair to say that Beefy, who knew “If you haven’t practised fielding in had only one game where he really with us the length and breadth of the trip would be his swansong, them, you shouldn’t wear them,” I fired, against the old foe Australia, Australia, albeit without the concluding warmed to his task slowly that winter. chided. “You’d better not drop a catch where he got runs and wickets in an satisfaction of capturing the Cup. While the rest of the squad prepared off my bowling with them on or there easy win at the SCG. for the World Cup by playing a three- will be hell to pay.” I think Smith left Let’s face it. Injustices have been match Test series and three one-day them in his bag and opted for a pair Beefy’s boisterous view was tempered by perpetrated in sport for centuries if not internationals against New Zealand, he he’d worn before. the more thoughtful, nuanced approach millennia. There is little you can do about trod the panto boards in Bournemouth, of Gooch. Although he’d opt mostly for them except to neutralise the grievance, playing opposite Max Boyce in Jack The other “issue” I recall was that the aggressive option, Goochie would reboot, and get on with life. Of course, and the Beanstalk. the ICC, who were bankrolling the also counsel caution over gung-ho in this age of history by videotape, you tournament, had instructed teams optimism. Confidence in one’s ability can revisit such moments in times like When he did turn up about two-thirds that they must do their own laundry. was fine, blind optimism wasn’t. these, in slow motion if necessary, and of the way through that tour, he was Although we were staying in decent play to the gallery. rusty and overweight, though that hotels, the ICC would not pick up the At the other end of the scale, you’d did not prevent him from persuading Extras bill, of which laundry, at least have the spinners Richard Illingworth It helps that England’s poor showing Gooch to let him open the batting in in rooms not occupied by Beefy, was and Phil Tufnell who, typical of their in World Cups since means there is a the final one-day match against New always the biggest part.