Playfair Cricket Annual
Playfair Cricket Annual is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to review the previous English season and to provide detailed career records and potted biographies of current players. It is produced in a "pocket-sized" format, being approximately 5×4 in (i.e., about 13×10 cm), so that it is a convenient size for carrying to cricket matches. The front cover of each edition has featured a photograph of a prominent current cricketer. There is a popular myth that this "honour" has a "hex" or "curse" associated with it, as the player featured then invariably has a poor season.
1787 English cricket season
1787 was the 91st English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played and is widely seen as a watershed in the sport's history because it marked the transition from an essentially rural game into an urban and metropolitan one. The event that effected the transition was the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) after the opening of Thomas Lord's first cricket ground in the parish of Marylebone, north of London. Lord was financed by the aristocratic members of the long-standing and multi-functional "Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club" which was based at the "Star and Garter" on Pall Mall and had already founded the Jockey Club to pursue its racing interests. Its most recent cricket venture had been the White Conduit Club in Islington.