Wisden remains a timeless gem

The Guardian's Andy Bull finds that this year's Wisden Almanack makes for compelling reading, and applauds it for its "refreshingly open-minded and enthusiastic" tone.

One of the real gems this year is a piece by Dean Wilson, freed from the Daily Mirror style, on the decline of cricket among Britain's Afro-Caribbean community. Nasser Hussain provides an appreciation of the careers of his contemporaries Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick. He is as insightful on the enigma of the former as anybody I've read. Tanya Aldred's diaries of a year in the life of three county cricketers – Darren Maddy, Claude Henderson and Chris Jordan – is an example of ghost writing at its finest, making the day-to-day lives of professional sportsmen seem fascinating and sympathetic