ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2009

Preface The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was formed in 1973 and the publication of match scores has been one of its principal activities virtually throughout its 36-year history. In this time, the ACS has not only included match scores in many of its general and historical books, but has also issued many volumes dedicated wholly or mainly to scores, most notably the ACS ‘Greens’. This series, originally branded as ‘pre-1900’, later as ‘pre-1914’, now extends ‘post-1914’ too and in fact, at the time of going to press, currently provides complete and uninterrupted world-wide coverage of first-class scores, for anyone fortunate enough to possess the full set, from 1801 to 1920. The Association’s predilection for scores that are otherwise hard to obtain has perhaps led to a certain bias towards publishing matches played many years ago. Yet there are exceptions: notably, the Association has published scores from recent seasons in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, in recognition of the fact that domestic matches in these newer Test nations often receive less coverage, and less attention generally, compared with long-established cricketing jurisdictions such as Australia and India. These days, of course, all first-class scores are available on the internet, and almost as soon as matches are completed they are posted on the CricketArchive website (www.cricketarchive.com ). Yet it is clear that followers of the game retain a healthy appetite for scores set down in print. It is unfortunate, then, that so many of the matches featured in this volume would never otherwise have been printed in book form; and even those that were would become available in a bewildering variety of publications. Anyone setting out to obtain all of them would be confronted with what could become a time-consuming and costly exercise. The ACS Overseas First-Class Annual makes the printed coverage of global first-class cricket fuller, clearer, and more accessible than ever before. Its inauguration means that, from the 2008 season on, anyone may be sure of acquiring all current first-class scores by making only two purchases each year: Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack , which includes (along with much other material) scores of all matches in England and Wales the previous season; and the new ACS Annual, which includes all matches elsewhere. Many readers will wish to complement these purchases with the ACS International Cricket Year Book , which contains no scores at all but a wealth of invaluable supplementary information. In many ways the new ACS Overseas First-Class Annual represents the logical culmination of the Association’s role as a publisher of first-class scores. The Association is all too well aware, however, how dependent its publishing work is on the support of members and other purchasers. It is fitting, then, that the first purchasers of this annual are officially denoted as “founder subscribers” and their names will be found on page 10. The ACS can produce a publication such as this, but it is those that purchase it and refer to it that will be the judges of its success. Their comments and criticism are welcome and suggestions for future years are warmly solicited. All feedback will receive a reply. Also, it is acknowledged that in any work of this kind, there will be errors and oversights; the editor will be pleased to hear of anything that needs to be included in the ‘Errata and Corrigenda’ that will be an inevitable new feature in the 2010 edition. 7