Sambit Bal (Editor)
Sambit Bal took to journalism at the age of 19 after realising that he wasn't fit for anything else, and to cricket journalism 14 years later when it dawned on him that it provided the perfect excuse to watch cricket in the office. Among other things, he has bowled legspin that turned when the ball occasionally landed in front of the batsman, laid out the comics page of a city evening paper, covered crime, urban development and politics, and edited Gentleman, a monthly features magazine. He joined Wisden in 2001 and was the founder editor of Wisden Asia Cricket. He still spends his spare time watching cricket.

Martin Williamson (Executive Editor)
Martin Williamson joined the Wisden website in its planning stages in 2001 after failing (like so many) to make his millions in the internet boom when managing editor of Sportal. Before that he was in charge of Sky Sports Online and helped to launch and run Sky News Online. With a preference for all things old (except his wife and children) he has recently confounded colleagues by displaying an uncharacteristic fondness for Twenty20 cricket. His enthusiasm for the game is, sadly, not matched by his ability, but he remains convinced that he might be a late developer and perseveres in the hope of an England call-up with his middle-order batting and non-spinning offbreaks.

Jayaditya Gupta (Executive Editor - India)
A football lover and a veteran of the print media, Jayaditya sold out on both to join the crazy gang at Cricinfo. It's a decision that often left him wondering whether he'd stumbled into the wrong room by mistake, till he realised that many of his colleagues switch the TV channel from cricket to football when they think nobody's watching. He does have cricketing heroes: Viv Richards and Steve Waugh share space with Steve Coppell (the player and manager) and Bryan Robson (the player!). Having covered two world cups (the football version) and a Champions League final, he can now set his sights on fulfilling other ambitions - including the launch of "Footinfo". Watch this space for more details...

Peter English (Australasian Editor)
Peter English is regularly accused of being English by Australians, especially during an Ashes series, but has lived most of his life in Queensland and risked re-breaking ribs by cheering the state's original Sheffield Shield win in 1994-95. He did spend three years in England but never considered swapping his Australian passport, mainly because his batting was so miserable during occasional appearances in Yorkshire's Wetherby League. In London, Peter worked for Wisden Cricket Monthly and The Guardian before returning to Australia, where he joined Cricinfo in 2004. For exercise, he now chases his two children.

Andrew Miller (UK Editor)
Andrew Miller was saved from a life of drudgery in the City when his car, God bless it, caught fire on the way to an interview. He took this as a sign and instead fled to Pakistan where he witnessed England's historic victory in the twilight at Karachi (or thought he did, at any rate - it was too dark to tell). He then joined Wisden Online when it was set up in 2001, and soon graduated from put-upon photocopier to a writer with a penchant for comment and cricket on the subcontinent. In addition to Pakistan, he has covered England tours in Sri Lanka, South Africa ... and Bangladesh, where one local website dubbed him "the Father of Bangladesh cricket".

Osman Samiuddin (Pakistan Editor)
He spent the first half of his life pretending he discovered reverse swing with a tennis ball half-covered with electrical tape. The second half of his life was spent discovering spiritual fulfillment in the world of Pakistani advertising and marketing. Having not found any fulfillment there, the third half of his life will be devoted to convincing people that he did discover reverse swing. And occasionally writing about cricket. And learning mathematics.

Charlie Austin (Sri Lanka Editor)
When Charlie Austin left for Sri Lanka, in September 1999, he was a planning a winter's cricket in the tropics and a six-month stint with an environmental NGO after graduating from Sussex University - his specialist subject African and Asian Politics with Development Studies. His mother's worst fears were soon realised when it became clear that he had fallen in love with the island. Six months has now become six years and Colombo has become his home. After a frustrating spell in the NGO field, he changed career paths and joined Cricinfo in February 2000. He now heads up our operations in Sri Lanka, responsible for both sales and editorial. He is also the director of a UK-based travel company called Red Dot Tours, which specialises in tailormade leisure and sporting holidays, and is currently ghosting Muttiah Muralitharan's autobiography.

Dileep Premachandran (Associate Editor)
Dileep Premachandran gave up the joys of studying thermodynamics and strength of materials with a view to following in the footsteps of his literary heroes. Instead, he wound up at the Free Press Journal in Mumbai, writing on sport and politics before Gentleman gave him a column called Replay. A move to MyIndia.com followed, where he teamed up with Sambit Bal, and he arrived at Wisden Cricinfo after having also worked for Cricket Talk/total-cricket.com. Sunil Gavaskar and Greg Chappell were his early cricketing heroes, though attempts to emulate their silken touch had hideous results. He considers himself obscenely fortunate to have watched live the two greatest comebacks in sporting history - India against invincible Australia at the Eden Gardens in 2001, and Liverpool's inc-RED-ible resurrection in the 2005 Champions' League final. He lives in Bangalore with his girlfriend, who remains astonishingly tolerant of his sporting obsessions.

S Rajesh (Stats Editor)
Every week we take a look at the story behind the stats, with an original slant on facts and figures. The column is edited by S Rajesh, Cricinfo's assistant editor in Bangalore. He did an MBA in marketing, and then worked for a year in advertising, before deciding to chuck it in favour of a job which would combine the pleasures of watching cricket and writing about it. The intense office cricket matches were an added bonus.

Jamie Alter
Jamie was weaned on a cricket-mad household but really took to the game only during boarding school and the 1996 World Cup. While teachers in high school droned on about Fukuyama and the End of History, young Jamie's mind tended to wander to Old Trafford and the MCG. Subsequently having spent six years in the States - studying Political Science, then working for an insurance company - he moved back to India having failed miserably to win any cricket converts. Not surprising given that for the average American fan a sporting encounter without a result is akin to a first date without a kiss. No such problem in Bangalore where he can endlessly pontificate on a chinaman who turned it around with a flipper and why Adam Gilchrist is such a good hooker. These days he divides his time playing office cricket and constant replenishments at one of Bangalore's many pubs.

Kanishkaa Balachandran
Kanishkaa liked to believe he bowled indippers, but, being the fraud that he was, actually bowled offcutters with a longish run-up. A commerce graduate, he showed up for his first day at Cricinfo droopy eyed, having waved goodbye to India's flourishing BPO industry a few hours before. He worked in Cricinfo's Customer Relations Management team in Chennai for 14 months before accepting a rather generous and unexpected offer to join the editorial team, moving to Mumbai. Now in Bangalore, he is the victim of all the wisecracks and leg-pulling antics his colleagues often indulge in and returns the favour by spreading rumours and derisive comments, all in good humour. And, somehow, he squeezes in time to write.

Will Luke
Will opted against a lifetime of head-bangingly dull administration in the NHS, where he had served for two years. Enlightenment came in 2005 when a local recruitment agency could only offer him the less than tantalising prospect of standing on high-streets, attempting to lure people into handing over their money for charity. Then came a break at Cricinfo where he slotted right in as a ferociously enthusiastic tea-drinker and maker, with a penchant for using "frankly" and "marvellous" and less elegant variations too. He also runs The Corridor, a cricket blog where he can be found ranting and raving about all things - some even involving the sport. He is a great-great nephew of Sir Jack Newman, the former Wellingtonian bowler who took two wickets at 127 apiece for New Zealand.

George Binoy
After a major in Economics and nine months in a financial research firm, George realised that equity, capital and the like were not for him. He decided that he wanted to be one of those lucky few who did what they love at work. Alas, his prodigious talent was never spotted and he had to reconcile himself to the fact that he would never earn his money playing cricket for his country, state or even district. He jumped at the opportunity to work for Cricinfo and is now confident of mastering the art of office-cricket.

Andrew McGlashan
Andrew arrived at Cricinfo via Manchester and Cape Town, after finding the Assistant Editor at a weak moment as he watched England's batting collapse in the Newlands Test. Andrew began his cricket writing as a freelance covering Lancashire during 2004 when they were relegated in the County Championship. In fact, they were top of the table when he began reporting on them but things went dramatically downhill. He likes to let people know that he is a supporter of county cricket, a fact his colleagues will testify to and bemoan in equal quantities.

Nishi Narayanan
Nishi studied Journalism because she didn't want to study at all. As she spent most of the time at j-school stationed in front of the TV watching cricket her placement officer had no choice but to send out a desperate plea to the Editor of Cricinfo to hire her. Though some of the senior staff was suspicious at that a diploma in journalism was the worst thing that could happen to Cricinfo and she did nothing to allay them, she continues to log in everyday and do her two-bit for cricket.

Brydon Coverdale
Possibly the only person to win a headline-writing award for a title with the word "heifers" in it, Brydon decided agricultural journalism wasn't for him when he took up his position with Cricinfo in Melbourne. His cricketing career peaked with an unbeaten 85 in the seconds for a small team in rural Victoria on a day when they could not scrounge up 11 players and Brydon, tragically, ran out of partners to help him reach his century. He is also a compulsive TV game-show contestant and has appeared on half a dozen shows in Australia.

Contributors

Vaneisa Baksh
Vaneisa Baksh had been writing on cricket for some time before deciding to apply for membership at the male-only Queen's Park Cricket Club. To her consternation, her application raised great protest from members and was denied after three years in the waiting list. Trying to understand the male perspective, she began researching the concept of West Indian identity as seen through cricket, and is finishing her M.Phil. on the subject, while still awaiting membership at QPCC, which voted to have women membership in October 2004 after an eight-year campaign.

Steven Lynch
Steven Lynch won the Wisden Cricket Monthly Christmas Quiz three years running before the then-editor said "I can't let you win it again, but would you like a job?" That lasted for 15 years, before he moved across to the Wisden website when that was set up in 2000. Following the merger of the two sites early in 2003 he was appointed editor of Wisden Cricinfo - but still can't get away from answering questions about cricket. In June 2005, he became the deputy editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Steven Price
Steven Price is a freelance journalist based in Harare who has been following cricket throughout his life but only turned to writing on the game after retiring from his full-time job.