The 2024 New Zealand Cricket Almanack arrived in the post.
It is compulsive reading and everyone approaches the weighty tome differently.
Some flip straight to diary of the season. Happenings is always an interesting section.
But the players of the year and promising players have to be the most quotable pages.
This year, Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson have been named by the publication as the players of the year.
Williamson is a recidivist. He was one of the two players of the year in the last edition and he has graced the pages, well, lots over the years.
He had an injury-interrupted season. He missed the first two games of the World Cup and gave everyone a scare when he retired hurt for 78 in the comfortable win against Bangladesh.
Williamson went on to play just four games in the tournament, scoring 256 runs at an average of 85.33 and 69 runs in the semifinal loss to India.
He was in impressive red-ball form as well.
"Williamson was in top form in the tests against South Africa in February when he amassed 403 runs in four innings," the publication said.
He scored a hundred in three of his four knocks during that series.
Ravindra shone at the World Cup. In the opening game, he shared in a 273-run unbroken stand with Devon Conway to help the Black Caps clinch a nine-wicket win over England.
"He scored further hundreds against Australia and Pakistan and finished the tournament with 578 runs, equalling Kane Williamson’s New Zealand record for the competition."
He was recalled for the test side and posted his maiden century in the format — a massive tally of 240.
Canterbury duo Will O’Rourke and Zak Foulkes and Wellington batter Gareth Severin were named as promising players.
O’Rourke has made a wonderful start to his international career and Foulkes has been named in the Blacks Caps for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka next month, while Severin was in dominant form for Wellington in the Plunket Shield and is one to watch.
