Overseas Matches 2007/08

Preface Full scores of first-class matches in England and Wales are printed in each year’s Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack , but for matches overseas, statisticians have traditionally relied upon a range of national cricket annuals. Unfortunately, however, not every cricketing nation has been able to sustain a regular annual and in recent years this problem has become worse. The long-running Indian Cricket annual ceased to appear after the 2004 edition, while the most recent annuals for such major cricketing nations as Australia and Pakistan covered the 2004/05 and 2003/04 seasons respectively. The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians responded to these developments by publishing in September 2009 the first edition of the ACS Overseas First-Class Annual , which brought together in a single volume all first-class matches played throughout the world during the 2008/09 season. The reception accorded to this new venture demonstrated that there remains an appetite for match scores in print form, even though they are now also available on the internet. The new Overseas Annual means that, from 2008/09 onwards, it is possible to maintain a full printed record of the modern first-class game by making only two purchases each year: Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack , for matches in England and Wales; and the new Annual, for matches elsewhere. In warmly welcoming the full coverage of the 2008/09 season provided by the new Annual, however, several statisticians pointed out the great difficulty of obtaining printed versions of most overseas scores from other recent seasons. The ACS has therefore issued the current publication, which contains the full score of all 559 first-class matches played in 2007/08. Note that it contains no matches played in England and Wales, for which reference should be made to the relevant edition of Wisden . Nor does it include the 24 matches played outside England and Wales in the 2008 season: these are found in the 2009 edition of the Overseas First-Class Annual . Matches are grouped according to the country in which they were played, starting with Australia and finishing with Zimbabwe. Within each country’s section, matches are given in date order. In other words, the order is the same as in the first-class match register that appears in each edition of the ACS International Cricket Year Book . A full index of matches will be found at the end of the book. Abandoned matches are noted at the appropriate point in each country’s season. The Zimbabwean home fixtures in the South African SuperSport series, which were announced by Cricket South Africa after the series had already begun only to be revoked after less than a week following objections, are of such an ephemeral nature that they are not treated as abandoned games for this purpose. For the record the dates were as follows. Zimbabwe v Eagles, Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, 22, 23, 24, 25 November 2007 Zimbabwe v Dolphins, Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, 20, 21, 22, 23 December 2007 Zimbabwe v Cape Cobras, Harare Sports Club, 27, 28, 29, 30 December 2007 Zimbabwe v Warriors, Harare Sports Club, 3, 4, 5, 6 January 2008 Zimbabwe v Titans, Harare Sports Club, 31 January, 1, 2, 3 February 2008 To keep the bulk and price of the present volume within reasonable bounds despite the very large number of matches to be accommodated, space has been at a premium throughout. This has meant the exclusion of material that is available in other works. In particular, this book has been prepared on the assumption that purchasers are likely already to own (or can readily acquire) the 2009 editions of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and the ACS International Cricket Year Book . Part Four of the 2009 Wisden , ‘Overseas cricket’, provides a narrative account of the 2007/08 domestic season in each ICC member country, together with league tables for the various competitions and averages of leading players. For complete averages of the 2007/08 and 2008 4