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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