ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2014

Preface I am delighted to introduce the sixth edition of the ACS Overseas First-Class Annual . The first five editions of this Annual followed very much the same format: they covered all first-class matches for the previous overseas season, preceded by an additional section comprising the small number of matches played overseas during the English season prior to that. Thus, the 2013 edition, for instance, covered seasons 2012 and 2012/13. For this sixth edition of the Annual , however, there is a modest but significant change of approach. The later publication date (November, compared with September in previous years) means that it is now possible to include games played overseas during the English season just concluded. This means that the 2014 Annual will cover the seasons 2013/14 and 2014, and this pattern will continue for subsequent editions. This arrangement has the merit of making the Annual more up-to-date, besides meaning that the ‘year’ for the purposes of the Annual is now identical to the ‘year’ used for the ACS International Cricket Year Book . The transition from the previous arrangement to the new one also means that, for this edition only, it is necessary to include sections covering matches played during the two English seasons of 2013 and 2014. These sections effectively ‘book-end’ the 2013/14 season which makes up the bulk of the book. A further small innovation this year is the inclusion of the ICC Test Championship table. In previous editions of the Annual there have been many references to the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the various Test sides as they rise or fall in the rankings, but the table itself has not been included until now. It appears immediately after this preface and is up to date to the end of the second Test between West Indies and Bangladesh in September 2014, this being the most recent Test to appear in the present edition. The editorial task has been somewhat lightened this year by the launch of the ACS On-line Records website, which provides the fullest and most-up-date coverage of cricket records available anywhere. While it is acknowledged that use has also been made of other on-line sources as well as the printed records in Wisden , the ACS site in particular has greatly eased the process of checking rapidly and reliably what is a record and what is not, and readers will see that as a result, the match footnotes are slightly fuller this year. Notwithstanding these various amendments and improvements, readers will find that the Annual is faithful to the format of previous years. It provides scorecards for all first-class games played in the period under review, with the exception of games in England and Wales. The latter are printed in Wisden , so it remains the case that the Annual and Wisden , taken together, cover all first-class matches played throughout the world. The period of roughly eighteen months covered by this Annual is notable for the number of retirements of cricketers of altogether exceptional calibre. For fame, longevity and sheer quantity of runs, pride of place must go to Sachin Tendulkar. Sri Lanka’s record run-scorer Mahela Jayawardene also called it a day; as did the South African pair of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, who more than made up in grit and determination what they lacked in glamour. (Indeed, had the editor been obliged to select a side to play for his life at any time in the last fifteen years, it is no slight on any other cricketer to say that the first name on the team sheet would have been Jacques Kallis.) Although the calendar of first-class cricket shows a considerable degree of continuity from one season to the next, there are significant changes from time to time. Last year, for instance, I noted the restructuring of the venerable Ranji Trophy, resulting in a marked increase in the number of 5