1. John Wisden was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex.
16 Facts About John Wisden
1. 2.
John Wisden is best known for launching the eponymous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.
3.
John Wisden attended Brighton's Middle Street School.
4.
John Wisden moved to London after his father died, and lived with the wicket-keeper Tom Box.
5.
John Wisden joined the All-England Eleven in 1846, moving allegiance to the United All-England Eleven in 1852.
6.
John Wisden was engaged to marry George Parr's sister Annie in 1849, but she died before the wedding, and he never married.
7.
John Wisden was a competent batsman, and scored two first-class centuries, the first, exactly 100, against Kent at Tunbridge Wells in 1849, and in 1855 he notched up 148 against Yorkshire, the only first-class century scored in 1855.
8.
John Wisden played almost all of his cricket in England, mostly for Sussex, but once for Kent and thrice for Middlesex.
9.
John Wisden travelled with a touring team led by George Parr to Canada and the US in 1859, where eight matches in Montreal, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Hamilton and Rochester were won easily.
10.
John Wisden was said to be the best all-rounder of his day.
11.
John Wisden scored 4,140 first-class runs with a batting average of 14.12, an average which was very good for the time.
12.
John Wisden was the cricket coach at Harrow School from 1852 to 1855, and owned The Cricketers, a public house at Duncton in Sussex.
13.
John Wisden retired from cricket in 1863 at the relatively early age of 37 as a result of rheumatism, and started publishing his annual Cricketers' Almanack the following year.
14.
John Wisden published in Cricket and How to Play It in 1866.
15.
John Wisden died of cancer, at the age of 57, in the flat above his Cranbourn Street shop.
16.
In 1913,29 years after his death, he was the subject of a "Special Portrait" in the 50th edition of John Wisden, replacing the usual John Wisden Cricketers of the Year feature which was dropped from that edition.