Wisden plays itself in with well directed shots

The famous Wisden Almanack still has its place, says Mike Selvey in the Guardian, and is about more than handing out a few prizes every year. Selvey praises the collection of comments, in particular the appraisals of the careers of the trio of geniuses who retired during 2007, but doesn't quite agree with editor Scyld Berry's idea that "physical violence is threatening to take over the traditional non-contact sport of cricket".

Wisden's real strength lies in the chronicling of the world game and especially in the articles - always imaginatively commissioned, well written and meticulously edited - and the oddments at the end of the book. And yet, in a cricket world increasingly in ferment, this brick of a book still represents something reassuringly steadfast, its spring arrival always a portent of things to come as much as a document of those past, even the primrose cover seeming to offer subliminal hope, forlorn more often than not, of a summer of unrelenting sun.