It was with glee last night that I sat down to read the 2007 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. I hadn’t got 22 pages before I discovered this comment by Matthew Engel, the Editor, which really brought home the state of modern cricket and gave credence to my previous article Cricket’s great conspiracy theory. It also put perfectly into words why cricket is such an enthralling game for so many:

‘…the beauty of cricket cannot be measured by the number of runs hit in a day. It is a game of context, hinging on the delicate balance between bat and ball. That balance has been getting ever more out of kilter: batsman get stronger, their bats more effective, their padding more generous, the pitches less interesting, umpires more cautious, yet bowlers are scrutinised for the merest hint of ball-doctoring - they can’t even get away with honest-to-goodness old-fashioned seam-picking any more’.

Matthew Engel - Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2007. Pg 21)