Raking over the Ashes

Edited by Greg Baum, Hardie Grant Books, A$55 (available from Cricshop for £19.99)
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The southern hemisphere's cousin of the Almanack burst into a full-colour cover-drive last season and the bright outlook has been maintained for 2005-06. A new editor has arrived in Greg Baum, but Shane Warne again appears on the front and this summer his left-arm is draped around a dejected Ricky Ponting in Ashes consolation. Warne is a popular topic but the Ashes are the big issue as Gideon Haigh leads the tour coverage and Baum passes verdict in his Notes by the Editor.

"The Australian dynasty, like all empires, has seemed so invulnerable for so long that the idea it might be at an end comes as a shock," Baum writes. The age of the team is one concern - he notes the two oldest players are its best - and he also attempts to understand the polarised opinions of supporters towards Warne at home and in England. "It is like the difference between family and friends," he says. "You can secretly love the roguish genius in another family, but you fret about the one in your own."

Warne is also a subject of Charles Davis, a Melbourne scientist, who looks beyond basic averages to compare him to Muttiah Muralitharan using a maths book full of statistics. "If the figures are to be trusted," Davis writes, "Murali is the greatest bowler of our time." John Benaud, the former selector, also writes in the comment section about dealing with criticism and bias, the first glimpse of Twenty20 in Australia is analysed and Keith Miller is remembered through Tony Charlton's eulogy-in-chief.

Geoff Lawson pens a tribute to Glenn McGrath, the Wisden Australia Cricketer of the Year, Michael Bevan's record-breaking summer is recognised with the Pura Cup Player of the Year award and there are the invaluable statistics, match reports and player profiles. "Last year Wisden got an exciting makeover," Baum writes. "This year, we have consolidated and fortified the strength of the publication ... we flatter ourselves to think that the mix now is pretty damned good."