LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Merv Hughes warms up – and so does the cr owd, 1989 . . . . . . . . . .789 Viv Richards on his wa y to a century in the 1979 World Cup final . . . . 803 South Africa’s impossible target at the 1992 World Cup semi-final . . . . . 829 Australian celebrations after the tied World Cup semi-final of 1999 . . . . 862 Essex, the dominant county team of the period, take the field in 1991 . . 911 Leicestershire huddle in 1996 – aped by the umpires . . . . . . . . . . . .971 The last county match at Hastings, 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1027 Brian Lara on reaching 501 not out for Warwickshire, 1994 . . . . . . . .1035 Dickie Bird during his last Test match, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1105 John Arlott and Keith Miller commentate at Lord’s in 1980 . . . . . . . .1158 Don Bradman with Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar, 1998 . . . . . . .1163 Denis Compton,Len Hutton, Keith Miller and Bill Edrich, 1982 . . . . . .1170 Dennis Lillee,Don Bradman and Harold Larwood, 1977 . . . . . . . . . .1209 Malcolm Marshall,the great West Indian fast bowler, 1991 . . . . . . . . .1218 Geoff Boycott, Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton, 1977 . . . . . . . . . . .1246

PHOTOGRAPHIC ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The publishers wish to thank the suppliers of the follo wing images:

Patrick Eagar – pages 8, 22, 71, 89, 115, 196, 214, 230, 274, 296, 335, 438, 515, 54 7, 594, 669, 675, 697, 736, 757, 770, 780, 803, 829, 911, 1027, 1105, 1158, 1170, 1209, 1218, 1246.

Getty Images – pages 43, 145, 149, 177, 325, 355, 380, 420, 447, 452, 476, 612, 645, 789, 862, 971.

Graham Morris – pages 156, 1035.

Philip Brown – page 718.

Colorsport – page 727.

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All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this content in any form or by any means. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I first under took the task of turning the past 30 years of Wisden in to one more or less coherent volume,I fear I forgot to do the maths – 40,000 pages, 15 million words,goodness knows how many mat ches. At times,the task seemed completely impossible and I was contemplating buying a one-way ticket to South America.That I did not in the end do so – and that the book kept to something resembling the original schedule – is entir ely down to the excellent team Wisden assembled to produce a large and complicated book.Christopher Lane, Wisden’s managing director, marshalled the side expertly,offering constant encouragement and forgiving the occasional dropped cat ch;Nicky Thompson made the birth far less painful than it mig ht otherwise have been; Peter Ward produced an elegant and at tractive design; Simon Webber was the ever-thorough pr oofreader;Hugh Chevallier,Steven Lynch and Philip Bailey all made invaluable contributions, and Hilary Bird compiled the inde xes.Thanks are also due to the many Wisden contributors whose work is reprinted here for the warmth with which the y embraced the idea (and for not demanding repeat fees), to Richie Benaud for providing an illuminating forew ord, and to the typesetting team at Palimpsest who skilfully put together this most complicated jigsaw.

STEPHEN MOSS

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