The Cricketer is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket.
The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner edited the magazine until 1963. Later editors included E. W. Swanton and Christopher Martin-Jenkins.
Apart from its coverage of the contemporary game, The Cricketer has also contributed to the sport's history. For example, its researchers uncovered a letter in The Weekly Journal dated 21 July 1722, which is our source for an early fixture in Islington between London and Dartford on 18 July 1722.
The magazine is responsible for the National Village Cup, an annual competition between village cricket sides, with the final played at Lord's.
After surviving for over 80 years as an independent publication, Wisden purchased the magazine and in 2003 merged it with Wisden Cricket Monthly.
A new magazine called The Wisden Cricketer enjoyed some success under the editorship of John Stern over the next eight years. In December 2010, a private equity company called Test Match Extra Ltd—who owned and ran a cricket website of the same name—bought the magazine from the then owners BSkyB.
In May 2011, the magazine dropped the 'Wisden' from the masthead and became The Cricketer (in association with Wisden). Stern left as editor later that month.
Andrew Miller joined as editor in January 2012, with former Nottinghamshire cricketer Andy Afford appointed as publishing director. Afford soon took on the role of managing director and when Miller departed Simon Hughes, a former Middlesex and Durham bowler, became the title's editor-at-large from 1 September 2014.
Supporting the appointment of Hughes, Alec Swann joined as head of Editorial Planning & Production after four-and-a-half years with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph.
The Cricketer is the world number one and best-selling cricket title, with an ABC audited circulation of 32,000. It is available in digital format for mobile and tablet devices via iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.com publishing platforms.
The Cricketer Publishing Limited owns The Cricketer, along with other assets that include Cricket Archive, The National Village Cup, Thecricketer.com and TestMatchSofa.com.
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch. The game is played by 120 million players in many countries, making it the world's second most popular sport.[1][2][3] Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields. Each turn is known as an innings (used for both singular and plural).
The bowler delivers the ball to the batsman who attempts to hit the ball with his bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run. Each batsman continues batting until he is out. The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat.
In professional cricket, the length of a game ranges from 20 overs per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.[4]
Cricket is generally believed to have been first played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international match was held. ICC, the game's governing body, has 10 full members.[5] The game is most popular in Australasia, England, the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies and Southern Africa.
Muralitharan is the first wrist-spinning off-spinner in the history of the game.[43] He bowls marathon spells, yet he is usually on the attack. His unique bowling action begins with an open-chested short run-up, and culminates with an extremely wristy release which had him mistaken for a leg-spinner early in his career by Allan Border.[44] Aside from his off-break, his main deliveries are a fast topspinner which goes straight on, and the doosra, a surprise delivery which turns from leg to off (the opposite direction of his stock delivery) with no easily discernible change of action.[45][46] His newest variation is a version of Shane Warne's slider, which is flicked out the side of his hand and rushes onto batsmen like a flipper. His super-flexible wrist makes him especially potent and guarantees him turn on any surface.[9]
From his debut in 1992, Muralitharan took 800 Test wickets and over 500 One Day International wickets, becoming the first player to take 1,000 wickets combined in the two main forms of international cricket.
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