John Wisden English cricketer -187th birth anniversary celecbrating as Bible of cricket

John Wisden  English cricketer -187th birth anniversary celecbrating as Bible of cricket

On the English cricketer's 187th birthday, Google had a yellow and red doodle to mark the day.

John Wisden's 187th birthday has been marked by a Google doodle. Wisden was an English cricketer and creator of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which is often referred to as the 'Bible of cricket'.

The Google doodle gives a tribute to Wisden as it's designed just like the front cover of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack complete with the yellow background colour and similar fonts, and features Eric Ravilious' famous woodcut of two cricketers, which appeared on the cover, every year until 2003.

Born in Brighton on 5 September, 1826, Wisden made his debut for Sussex at 18 years of age. He went on to become a combative cricketing all-rounder, playing 187 first-class cricket matches for Kent, Middlesex and Sussex, and earning the nickname The Little Wonder.

Wisden was known to be the best all-rounder at his time and was also called "The little wonder." He was initially a fast round-arm bowler and took nearly 10 wickets every game, on average. His pace slowed down during his latter years.

He took 1109 wickets at a bowling average of 10.32, and made 4140 runs with a batting average of 14.12, in his first-class career, which was a pretty handy batting average for the time.

Wisden retired in 1863 at the age of 37 as he was suffering from rheumatism, following which he started the publishing the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, an annual publication that rounded up the year and featured awards, records, detailed coverage of all games, and other information.

The Almanack is the longest running sports annual, as it's still published every year in the month of April. The Wisden brand was transferred to a number of businesses and the Almanack is now part of Bloomsbury Publishing.

First published in 1864, a new volume of the book, labelled "the Bible of Cricket", has appeared every year since with Wisden 2013 being the 150th edition.

The first edition of the Almanack is a collector's item and said to be valued at 25,000 GBP.

The book which the Englishman first brought out is now a cricket reference book that is published annually in England, every year now and the annual book is considered the world's most famous sports reference book. In 2013, the 150th edition of the book was published.

John Wisden died of cancer on April 5, 1884, at the age of 57 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.