Cricket's Historians

Chapter 7 The Cricketer Magazine A major innovation, after the First World War, for cricket statisticians (and in the long run, historians) was the founding in 1921 of The Cricketer magazine. There is a stark contrast between its founding and that of its predecessor, Cricket . As has been noted, Cricket was created by C.W.Alcock in 1882. He had a decade of cricket journalism and cricket administration behind him. His ethic of hard work clearly inspired his contributors and his colleagues and this combination meant that Cricket was a success from the very beginning. The Cricketer was conceived by G.N.Foster, who was appointed the Managing Director. A member of the famous cricketing brotherhood of Malvern and Worcestershire, though latterly he played for Kent, he had Pelham Warner as the titular editor and F.J.Sellicks, an experienced sporting journalist, as the day-to-day editor. Francis Joseph Sellicks was born in Saffron Walden in 1868 and was a notable rugby footballer for Richmond (he just missed a blue at Oxford). He had begun his working life as a schoolmaster prior to taking to journalism and worked for the Morning Post (Warner’s paper) as the rugby correspondent. He was to remain at The Cricketer for seven years, his only signed articles being on rugby. Judging by the first winter annual issued by the magazine, it seemed to be a case of too many chiefs and too few indians. The cast list of writers reads: Lord Dartmouth, Sir Home Gordon, E.V.Lucas, G.L.Jessop, H.S.Altham, A.C.M.Croome, C.Aubrey Smith, F.S.Ashley-Cooper, Sydney Horler, 99