What better way to celebrate the 150th edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack than to have the Wisden XI play the Authors XI in Victorian cricketing kit at Vincent Square, near Victoria? Spectators will be encouraged, I’m told, “to embrace their inner Victorian and dress in period costume, munch cucumber sandwiches and sip Pimm’s”, for which little encouragement will presumably be required.
The match, on May 29, will also see the launch of a new book by cricket-playing writers, The Authors XI, by Bloomsbury. In it, a team of cricket-obsessed writers including Matthew Parker, Kamila Shamsie, brothers James and Tom Holland and William Fiennes, as well as former England cricketer Ed Smith, muse on cricket in the context of empire, history and the human condition. Wisden’s own 150th edition contains the usual detailed reports and scorecards for every Test played in the previous year and coverage of every first-class game around the globe, as well as the opinions it is famous for.
