By Oliver Brett
BBC Sport |
 A break with the past: Vaughan on the cover |
In a sport which has undergone all manner of change in the last few decades, the one constant was that cricket's annual "bible", Wisden, would always look the same.
The primrose-coloured cover always sported a small, simple monochrome image created in 1938. It showed two Victorian men with top hats playing a game from cricket's bygone age.
Underneath the woodcutting was a flowery, 19th century script which looked similar to the text on billboards advertising circus performances.
But times move on and the famous almanack has a new, young editor in Tim de Lisle who has chosen to include a picture of the world's number one Test batsman Michael Vaughan.
Speaking to BBC Sport's website, De Lisle admitted his revolutionary idea did not meet with total approval among the Wisden staff.
"There was some opposition but surprisingly little really," he said. "There was a very clear majority in favour of changing.
"The crucial thing was to come up with a new look that was still recognisably Wisden and we experimented with seven or eight dummy covers, all of them with Vaughan.
"Sport is something you watch, primarily. It's a very visual business. Pictures in sport convey the vitality and emotion of sport.
 Some people flick through it for the first time and express surprise that we have colour pictures inside |
"It is carried into people's living-rooms by television and by the internet - and cricket fans have responded well to the internet."
He admitted not everybody would approve of the new-look.
"There is a hardcore of die-hards - some of whom may not like this - and that's why you can still buy copies with a traditional cover."
And he also denied the move was based on an attempt to increase Wisden's readership - something which may be an issue now that its main benefactor, Sir John Paul Getty, has died.
"We are simply trying to make the cover reflect the content," said De Lisle. "Wisden is not all about stats - it's about wit and wisdom as well.
"Some people flick through it for the first time and express surprise that we have colour pictures inside."
Selecting Vaughan for the cover-shot was easy. "We wanted it to be the player who had made the year his own," said De Lisle.
 The old-style look is familiar to cricket-lovers |
"He made seven Test centuries in the space of a few months and made them in great style. He is one of the most exciting talents to emerge for English cricket since David Gower."
De Lisle hopes it will become a major honour for a player to be recognised in such a manner.
But he confesses he does not yet know whether Vaughan is pleased at being the venerable tome's debut coverboy.
News of the change in heart by Wisden had not reached Fred Trueman's home in Skipton, north Yorkshire.
But the former England fast bowler said he was not averse to the change in design.
"It doesn't worry me at all," he said. "But he's a very nice batsman is Michael Vaughan and I'm very pleased for him."
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