As a confirmed ‘Cricket Tragic’, I was aware of Wisden from a fairly early age, and, for a long time, I harboured a low-key ambition to see my name appear in it.  Since, unlike one or two school and university friends, I wasn’t a good enough player – or at least didn’t go to the right type of educational establishment – to appear in the school averages, I was going to have to do it by writing something.

In truth, by the time 2012 came around, if I thought about it at all, I regarded it as just another of life’s many unfulfilled aims, but then Wisden included a writing competition for the first time.  I entered it, and was fortunate enough to win.  Although I was incredibly pleased to have done so, I didn’t necessarily think that it would lead to anything more than a single appearance in the Almanack and an invitation to the annual launch dinner, which takes place at Lord’s each April.

However, in 2014 Lawrence Booth asked me if I would be interested in taking over the review of cricket blogs which appears in Wisden each year.

Since 2015 I’ve written the piece on blogs for each edition of the Almanack, and every piece is reproduced here, along with South African Time, which was my winning entry in the  inaugural competition.