ABOUT AOC
Like so many great things, All Out Cricket was born of humble origins. This story begins at Northampton Service Station, just off the M1, where Messrs Thacker and Afford, our co-editors, convene at a roadside café. They have never met before. Matt Thacker was, and still is, the boss of a cricket publishing company called TriNorth; Andy Afford once bowled slow left-arm for Notts before turning to wordsmithery. Between them, these likely lads would craft their masterplan, and it went something like this…
First, we publish issue one of the subscription-only quarterly magazine, cricnet, produced in conjunction with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA). Then we get drunk on the acclaim, do a few more and finally, after five cricnet issues have brought us a support base far in excess of most estimates, we relaunch the magazine under a sexy new title, and up the ante to ten issues per year.
We pack the new one with top-notch exclusive interviews – from Warne, to Viv, to Beefy to Fred to Vaughany to Gower to Monty and all the way back to Richie – and we cover the county and recreational game with unvarnished passion and colour. Then we select a roster of big name columnists and top-class coaches, crack a few jokes, give away prizes ranging from two-week holidays to plastic banana guards, debunk but never devalue the game’s traditions, and then finally, gloriously, give cricket back to those it belongs to: the fans.
So that was the plan. All Out Cricket is officially unleashed in May 2004. Michael Vaughan is our first cover star – the first of five cover stints for the England skipper – and so begins a tight and fruitful relationship between the magazine and the cricketers it celebrates.
For the next three years English cricket and AOC grow together. In December 2006 the magazine is given a facelift, with a new design layout and re-jigged sections making it easier to navigate, and in 2007, it goes monthly for the first time. The 40th issue is published in January 2008. It’s another excuse to crack open the bubbly, and in the woozy aftermath a pact is made, a little unsteadily but with great conviction, to take the show on-line.
So here we are, 4,600 pages down the line, and now having gone electronic. And here’s the best bit: we’re just getting started.