Charlie Chaplin, Elvis and The Don
Sir Donald Bradman glowed "as a bright star in the popular constellation," says Wisden's obituary of the 20th century's best-known cricketer, concluding that those who compared him with Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Keats missed the point somewhat.

The logical comparisons, "outside sport itself, are with other global art forms, such as cinema and pop music, coupling [Bradman] with such names as Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney and Elvis Presley."

Articles by EW Swanton, Richard Holt and Gideon Haigh provide a personal memoir of Bradman, reflect on his relationship with the British – "a menace to English cricket" in 1930, "greeted like an emperor" in 1948 – and examine the legacy that lies beyond the legend: " … reputations cannot be declared off limits by the wave of a legislative wand."

Notes by the Editor
England's seventh successive Ashes defeat allowed few illusions about the health of English cricket. Wisden editor Graeme Wright blames the counties.

"I believe the county system runs counter to a positive future for English cricket at the highest level," he writes. "What we have … is a Victorian institution that resisted reform in the 20th century and struggled into the 21st on subsidies rather than public support."

Yet Wright sympathises with the counties. He points to the paucity of good young cricketers coming into the professional game and regards the need for county academies as "a sorry commentary on the way sport, especially cricket, has been downgraded in schools".

But he does question whether English cricket needs as many as 18 counties – and extends his argument to ask whether it needs counties at all. England "has become an urban society, built on cities and conurbations. Why not a professional circuit based on these?" he asks. "Cities are marketable commodities in a way that counties, states and provinces are not."

The Yorkshireman…
Roy Hattersley celebrates Yorkshire's first County Championship title for 33 years with an affectionate glance over his shoulder to the years when "we Yorkshire members grew used to success" and the county "attracted the animosity that goes with near invincibility".

… and the Lancastrian
"In every respect, Atherton remained untouched by the vicissitudes of fortune and the ravages of time," Peter Roebuck says in his perceptive appreciation of the player who was "throughout the 1990s the face of English cricket" and "the finest English batsman of his generation".

A game in flux
Three articles discuss changes in cricket. Simon Heffer takes a trenchant line on the demise of the County Championship.

"It is easy to forget this, but professional cricket in England took off in the 19th century because people were prepared to watch it." Today, however, "first-class county cricket is nigh unwatchable: it almost beggars belief that anybody should find it a recreation preferable to, say, sitting in his or her own garden and watching the flowers grow".

Simon Hughes sets out the case for television's role as both entertainer and umpires' assistant. "Suddenly television was not only relaying what had happened in explicit detail, but also what would have happened in different circumstances."

And Catherine Hanley explains why the expanding Test calendar has forced counties to face "the reality that the days of fielding an international star for a whole season have gone".

Round the World
Wisden's Round the World section visits 37 countries, from Iceland to China via St Helena and Surinam.

Icelandic cricket may be in its infancy, but after a report appeared in last year's Almanack, the island rapidly became an obligatory stop for the sporting globetrotter: Sky Sports sent a TV crew to cover the Championship, while local officials had to discourage would-be touring teams turning up from as far afield as India.

There were different problems in China, where an overenthusiastic groundsman was spotted mowing the Astroturf wicket. Japan, meanwhile, sent a ladies' team for their first trip to England. Things began inauspiciously: in their opening match, against Hitchin, they managed ten ducks in a total of 14 – Extras alone reached double figures.

And in Luxembourg, celebrations for the 25th anniversary of Optimists CC ended on a sombre note when they were relegated from the Belgian league for the first time. Still, there's always next season…

Index of Unusual Occurrences
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