John Wisden's 187th birth anniversary marked with a Google doodle celebrating the 'Bible of cricket'

Advertisement
By Anupam Saxena | Updated: 5 September 2013 16:10 IST
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.

John Wisden was born in Brighton, Great Britain, on September 5, 1826. He started playing professional cricket at the age of 19 making his debut for the team of Sussex. Not much is known about his early life, though.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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

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

For more Google doodles, visit this page


Best Google doodles of 2013
 

Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.

Further reading: Google doodle, John Wisden
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. These Sony Signature Series Walkman Models Launch With Premium Design
  2. Oppo Find X10 Series to Debut in India With This Industry-First Camera Unit
  3. Amazon Great Indian Festival 2026: Best SSD Deals
  4. Samsung Galaxy F70 5G Will Launch in India on This Date
  5. Samsung Galaxy A38 5G Rear Camera Details Leaked
  1. Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 3 India Launch Timeline Confirmed by Company Executive
  2. CERT-in Issues Critical Warning After AI Agents Broke Into Indian Organisations' Live Systems
  3. Microsoft Announces $50 Xbox Nano Controller, Launch Set for Next Month
  4. Samsung Galaxy A38 5G Rear Camera Specifications Leaked; May Feature Same Sensors as Galaxy A37
  5. Meta’s Muse Spark Open Model Brings 1M-Token Context Window, Agentic AI Workflows to Apple Mac Studio
  6. Oppo Find X10 Pro Max Confirmed to Launch in India as First Phone With a Triple 200-Megapixel Camera System
  7. Ripple Partners With Cross River to Integrate RLUSD Into Core Banking Platforms
  8. Redmi K100 Officially Confirmed to Launch Later This Month; Pre-Orders Begin
  9. YouTube Music Will Now Display Labels for AI-Generated Music Integrated into the Player
  10. Vivo X500 Pro, X500 Pro Max Price in Europe, Colour Options Revealed Ahead of Global Launch
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2026. All rights reserved.