Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (often referred to simply as Wisden or colloquially as "the Bible of Cricket") is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. It is considered the world's most famous sports reference book.

Wisden was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden (1826–84) as a competitor to Fred Lillywhite's The Guide to Cricketers. Its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. The sixth edition was the first published under its current title; the first five were published as The Cricketer's Almanack, with the apostrophe before the "s".

Charles Pardon, with George Kelly King, founded the Cricket Reporting Agency (CRA) in 1880. From Pardon's becoming editor of Wisden in 1887, the editor was nearly always a CRA partner and the CRA was responsible for the editorial production of the Almanack, until in 1965 it merged with the Press Association (PA).

Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwell's publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, in the 1970s. Sir Paul Getty bought the company, John Wisden & Co, in 1993. And in December 2008, it was sold to A&C Black, which is owned by Bloomsbury. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies in 1963, to celebrate its 100th edition.

Lawrence Booth (c. 1420–1480) was Prince-Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England, before becoming Archbishop of York.

A scion of the ancient Cheshire family of Booth which remained seated at Dunham Massey until the middle of the eighteenth century, Lawrence Booth started out reading both Civil and Canon Law at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, becoming a Licentiate. He was elected Master of his college in 1450, a post he held until his death, and later was also appointed Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge, he started a movement for both a School for the Arts and a School of Civil Law, and is believed to have produced his first miracle.

Outside Cambridge, Booth's career also advanced quickly. In 1449, he was appointed a Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral and, on 2 November 1456, became Dean of St Paul's. He was also a Prebendary of York Minster and of Lichfield Cathedral. From 1454 to 1457 he was Archdeacon of Richmond.

Booth's activity was not confined to the Church; he was also active in the government. He became Chancellor to Queen Margaret and, in about 1456, he became Keeper of the Privy Seal, and in that same year on 28 January he was also appointed one of the tutors and guardians of the Prince of Wales. He was Lord Privy Seal until 1460.

John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 190 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. He is now best known for launching the eponymous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.

Wisden was born at 24 Crown Street, Brighton, but moved to London after his father William died.^{[citation needed]}

Although of moderate height (5 ft 6 in), Wisden was said to be the best all-rounder of his day. He made his first-class debut for Sussex in 1845 aged 18, weighing only 7 stone. Initially a fast round-arm bowler, his pace slowed in later years. While bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10 wickets in every game. In 1850, playing for the South against the North at Lord's, he took all 10 wickets in the second innings, all clean bowled (still the only instance of all ten wickets being taken "bowled" in any first-class match).

In all, he took 1,109 first-class wickets with a bowling average of 10.32 He was also a fine batsman (4,140 first-class runs with a batting average of 14.12, an average which was very good for the time). He scored only two centuries, the first in 1849 and the second was the only century scored in 1855.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar ( pronunciation (help·info); born 24 April 1973) is an Indian cricketer widely considered to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the first player to score a double century in ODI cricket. In 2002, just 12 years into his career, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Tendulkar was a part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team in the later part of his career, his first such win in six World Cup appearances for India. He is currently nominated for receiving the Bharat Ratna award.

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.