Dive in

In an earlier age, this introduction would have referred to the magazine you are holding. But now we can't be sure. You are possibly reading it on a handheld device. Equally likely, you're reading the first edition of cricket's first digital-only magazine on your laptop - or desktop.

Publishing has changed so radically and profoundly in the last decade that, unlike live scoring and ball-by-ball commentary, we can't hold the Cricket Monthly up as a revolutionary idea. In fact, now that it has come to fruition we find ourselves wondering what took us so long. From that obviousness we can draw a degree of assurance: good ideas always seem so in retrospect.

Just as the stop-start nature of cricket makes it ideal to be consumed live on the internet, its epic and episodic nature makes it the perfect match for a monthly magazine. Cricket is the ultimate narrative sport, a stage for the revelation of human character, and for twists and turns. The monthly is the most literary journalistic format, and its scale, scope and ambition match the sweep and cadences of cricket. The Cricket Monthly will combine these two powerful traditions in the modern environment, an ideal fusion of classical and contemporary.

But why a separate magazine when ESPNcricinfo has been an all-encompassing purveyor of all things cricket?

Features form a distinct component of our website, but ESPNcricinfo's primary task has been to keep pace with the day-to-day game. Being cricket's conscientious chronicler and its global voice is a job that we take seriously, and the nature of this task keeps us engaged with the immediate: in zooming in on match play or unfolding news stories to give you a ringside view and provide instant perspective. The hustle and thrust of a newsgathering, opinion-leading operation isn't compatible with the nature of a monthly, which needs time and space to breathe and flow.

In contrast to the site's topicality, the Cricket Monthly will aim at timelessness. It will run no match reports, news analyses or columns on the month's big stories. Instead it will zoom out to provide a panoramic view of cricket and its people. Profiles will seek to find the characters behind the PR-shaped images; interviews will be discursive; and every article will be allowed to grow to its natural length. Above all, it will be a showcase for fine writing and original ideas. And in doing all this, it will be the perfect complement to ESPNcricinfo.

Magazines are like weekend breaks, or better still, vacations: not compulsory but essential. You can immerse yourself in them, or allow yourself to drift and wander, and do so at a pace of your choosing

The effortlessness of self-publishing has created a wealth of easily accessible content online, and serendipitous discoveries are among the true joys of the internet. But the notion that search engines and bloggers have rendered the professionals redundant is facetious, and somewhat insulting to the institution of journalism. Newspapers and magazines rely on processes of collective curation, distillation and authentication that are beyond the capability of individuals. Each issue of a monthly magazine is put together over weeks, often months, of planning; discussing and sharpening ideas; commissioning and engaging with contributors; research (and often travel); several rounds of editing, rewriting, fact-checking; and finally laying out pages with care and affection.

This first issue of TCM has a number of stories that have each made this arduous yet fulfilling journey.

Our Sri Lanka correspondent Andrew Fernando took two trips to the north of his country and then spent many days spread over two months writing his evocative and poignant story on cricket in Sri Lanka's troubled zone during the civil war.

Vivek Chaudhary's piece on Monty Panesar, the once iconic but now shunned England spinner, needed a change of course when Panesar, after initially showing interest, remained unavailable for interviewing.

There was, of course, never the possibility of an interview with MS Dhoni. Among the most high-profile cricketers in the world, Dhoni is also among the most inscrutable, having decided early into his captaincy to limit his engagement with journalists to mandatory press conferences. Sidharth Monga embarked on a mission to find the real Dhoni, for which he travelled to Dhoni's home town, Ranchi, spoke to numerous team-mates, coaches, and the man's business manager to draw a layered portrait of India's most influential cricketer.

For singularity and distinctiveness, Christian Ryan's essay about five of his favourite photographs from Australia: A Cricket Country, the lavish and excellent book he recently edited, stands out. Turning the familiar adage on its head, Ryan writes a few thousand words about these unusual photos, their photographers, and subjects.

True to the tradition of magazines, there will be a number of regular series. Ian Chappell kicks off Hate to Love - cricketers on a rival who earned their grudging respect - with a tribute to Javed Miandad. Martin Crowe, Greg Chappell, Mike Selvey, Farokh Engineer and David Frith pick the best bowling pairs from the history of the game. And Michael Clarke fronts up to a video quiz on his career in Think You Know Yourself?

The magazine will always end on a reflective, literary note with a letter from somewhere around the world, beginning this month with the accomplished novelist Kamila Shamsie.

Even if you don't read every word of it, a magazine is designed to be consumed as an experience. Reading is ingrained in our daily routine - from newspapers, websites, email, text messages and social media to monthly reports, presentations or shopping lists, we are continuously engaging with words. But magazines are like weekend breaks, or better still, vacations: not compulsory but essential. You can immerse yourself in them, or allow yourself to drift and wander, and do so at a pace of your choosing.

ESPNcricinfo has always been a free service and will continue to remain so with the support of advertising. But with the Cricket Monthly we are making a departure from that model by asking for your collaboration. This magazine is not so much the product of a business plan as it is of faith. It can only succeed if you believe quality content is worth a small subscription fee. We would like to view this not as a transaction but as an investment. We have kept these pages free of advertising to begin with and would like to keep them that way. You can make this possible by taking ownership of this publication. We want this to be a magazine where every reader, writer and editor is its most ardent salesman. Not only do we want you to enjoy the reading, we are also counting on you to spread the word.

This issue is yours for free, but our introductory price, available soon, is a deal, if I say so myself. In most parts of the world today, a dollar will fetch you half a cup of coffee or account for a fifth of the price of a movie ticket. Here it will get you a full issue of the Cricket Monthly (and you'll pay less if you subscribe).

Welcome to the journey.

Sambit Bal is editor-in-chief of ESPNcricinfo. @sambitbal

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