The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season".[1] The award began in 1889 with the naming of "Six Great Bowlers of the Year",[2] and continued with the naming of "Nine Great Batsmen of the Year" in 1890 and "6 Great Wicket-Keepers" in 1891.[3]

Since 1897, with a few notable exceptions, the annual award has recognised five players of the year. No players were named in 1916 or 1917, as the First World War prevented any first-class cricket being played in England, while in 1918 and 1919 the recipients were five schoolboy cricketers.[3] From 1941 to 1946, the Second World War caused the same issue and no players were named. Three players have been sole recipients: W. G. Grace (1896), Plum Warner (1921) and Jack Hobbs (1926). The latter two selections are the only exceptions to the rule that a player may receive the award only once. Hobbs was first recognised in 1909, but was selected a second time in 1926 to honour his breaking W. G. Grace's record of 126 first-class hundreds;[4] Warner was first honoured in 1904, but received a second award in 1921 for his last season in first-class cricket, when he led Middlesex to a County Championship win.[4] John Wisden, cricketer and eponymous founder of the almanack, was featured in a special commemorative section in the Jubilee edition of the publication in 1913, 29 years posthumously.[5]

From 2000 to 2003 the award was made based on players' impact on cricket worldwide rather than just the preceding season in England,[3] but the decision was reversed in 2004 with the introduction of a separate Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World award.[6]

The oldest surviving recipient of the award is Neil Harvey (1954), which he became in February 2022 with the death of Sonny Ramadhin. The longest that a recipient has lived after receiving the award is 77 years by Harry Calder (1918), who died in 1995. Calder, however, uniquely for a male recipient, played no first-class cricket. Among first-class players, the longest-lived after receipt of the award is 74 years by Wilfred Rhodes (1899). Nine women have been chosen: Claire Taylor (2009), Charlotte Edwards (2014), Heather Knight (2018), Natalie Sciver (2018), Anya Shrubsole (2018), Tammy Beaumont (2019), Ellyse Perry (2020), Dane van Niekerk (2022), and Harmanpreet Kaur (2023).

List of Cricketers of the Year

George Lohmann an inaugural nominee, 1889
W.G. Grace, sole recipient of the honour, 1896
Jack Hobbs (l) and Herbert Sutcliffe. Hobbs was honoured in both 1909 and 1926, Sutcliffe in 1920.
Sir Donald Bradman, recognised in 1931
The Invincibles took all five awards in 1949; Don Tallon was their wicket-keeper.
Viv Richards, recognised in 1977
Imran Khan, recognised in 1983
Waqar Younis, recognised in 1992
Muttiah Muralitharan, recognised in 1999
Rahul Dravid, recognised in 2000
Adam Gilchrist, recognised in 2002
Claire Taylor, in 2009 became the first woman to be recognised
Kumar Sangakkara, recognised in 2012
Year Recipient(s)
1889[7] George Lohmann, Johnny Briggs, John Ferris, Charles Turner, Sammy Woods, Bobby Peel
1890[8] Bobby Abel, Billy Barnes, Billy Gunn, Louis Hall, Robert Henderson, Maurice Read, Arthur Shrewsbury, Frank Sugg, Albert Ward
1891[9] Jack Blackham Gregor MacGregor Dick Pilling Mordecai Sherwin Henry Wood
1892[10] William Attewell J. T. Hearne Frederick Martin Arthur Mold John Sharpe
1893[11] Herbie Hewett Lionel Palairet Walter Read Stanley Scott Andrew Stoddart
1894[12] George Giffen Alec Hearne Stanley Jackson Harry Trott Ted Wainwright
1895[13] Bill Brockwell Jack Brown C. B. Fry Tom Hayward Archie MacLaren
1896 W. G. Grace
1897[14] Syd Gregory Dick Lilley Ranjitsinhji Tom Richardson Hugh Trumble
1898 Frederick Bull Willis Cuttell Frank Druce Gilbert Jessop Jack Mason
1899[15] Wilfred Rhodes William Storer Charlie Townsend Albert Trott William Lockwood
1900[16] Joe Darling Clem Hill Arthur Jones Monty Noble Robert Poore
1901[17] Tip Foster Schofield Haigh George Herbert Hirst Tom Taylor John Tunnicliffe
1902 Len Braund Charlie McGahey Frank Mitchell Willie Quaife Johnny Tyldesley
1903 Warwick Armstrong Cuthbert Burnup James Iremonger Jim Kelly Victor Trumper
1904 Colin Blythe John Gunn Albert Knight Walter Mead Plum Warner
1905 Bernard Bosanquet Ernest Halliwell James Hallows Percy Perrin Reggie Spooner
1906 David Denton Walter Lees George Thompson Joe Vine Levi Wright
1907 Jack Crawford Arthur Fielder Ernie Hayes Kenneth Hutchings Neville Knox
1908 Albert Hallam Reggie Schwarz Frank Tarrant Bert Vogler Thomas Wass
1909[18] Walter Brearley Lord Hawke Jack Hobbs Alan Marshal John Newstead
1910 Warren Bardsley Sydney Barnes Douglas Carr Arthur Day Vernon Ransford
1911 Harry Foster Alfred Hartley Charlie Llewellyn Razor Smith Frank Woolley
1912[19] Frank Foster J. W. Hearne Sep Kinneir Phil Mead Herbert Strudwick
1913 John Wisden[5]
1914 Major Booth George Gunn Bill Hitch Albert Relf Lionel Tennyson
1915 Johnny Douglas Percy Fender Wally Hardinge Donald Knight Sydney Smith
1918 Harry Calder John Firth Clement Gibson Gerard Rotherham Greville Stevens
1919[20] Percy Adams Percy Chapman Adrian Gore Lionel Hedges Norman Partridge
1920[21] Andy Ducat Patsy Hendren Percy Holmes Herbert Sutcliffe Ernest Tyldesley
1921 Pelham Warner
1922 Hubert Ashton Jack Bryan Jack Gregory Charlie Macartney Ted McDonald
1923 Arthur Carr Tich Freeman Charlie Parker Jack Russell Andy Sandham
1924 Arthur Gilligan Roy Kilner George Macaulay Cec Parkin Maurice Tate
1925 Bob Catterall Jack MacBryan Herbie Taylor Dick Tyldesley William Whysall
1926 Jack Hobbs
1927 George Geary Harold Larwood Jack Mercer Bert Oldfield Bill Woodfull
1928 Roger Blunt Charlie Hallows Wally Hammond Douglas Jardine Vallance Jupp
1929 Les Ames George Duckworth Maurice Leyland Sam Staples Jack White
1930 Ted Bowley Duleepsinhji Tuppy Owen-Smith Walter Robins Bob Wyatt
1931 Donald Bradman Clarrie Grimmett Beverley Lyon Ian Peebles Maurice Turnbull
1932 Bill Bowes Stewie Dempster James Langridge Nawab of Pataudi senior Hedley Verity
1933 Ewart Astill Freddie Brown Alec Kennedy C. K. Nayudu Bill Voce
1934 Fred Bakewell George Headley Stan Nichols Leslie Townsend Cyril Walters
1935 Stan McCabe Bill O'Reilly George Paine Bill Ponsford Jim Smith
1936 Jock Cameron Errol Holmes Bruce Mitchell Denis Smith Arthur Wellard
1937 Charlie Barnett Bill Copson Alf Gover Vijay Merchant Stan Worthington
1938 Tom Goddard Joe Hardstaff Jr Len Hutton Jim Parks Sr Eddie Paynter
1939 Hugh Bartlett Bill Brown Denis Compton Kenneth Farnes Arthur Wood
1940 Learie Constantine Bill Edrich Walter Keeton Brian Sellers Doug Wright
1947 Alec Bedser Laurie Fishlock Vinoo Mankad Peter Smith Cyril Washbrook
1948 Martin Donnelly Alan Melville Dudley Nourse Jack Robertson Norman Yardley
1949 Lindsay Hassett Bill Johnston Ray Lindwall Arthur Morris Don Tallon
1950 Trevor Bailey Roly Jenkins John Langridge Reg Simpson Bert Sutcliffe
1951 Godfrey Evans Sonny Ramadhin Alf Valentine Everton Weekes Frank Worrell
1952 Bob Appleyard Tom Dollery Jim Laker Peter May Eric Rowan
1953 Harold Gimblett Tom Graveney David Sheppard Stuart Surridge Fred Trueman
1954 Neil Harvey Tony Lock Keith Miller Johnny Wardle Willie Watson
1955 Bruce Dooland Fazal Mahmood Eric Hollies Brian Statham George Tribe
1956 Colin Cowdrey Doug Insole Jackie McGlew Hugh Tayfield Frank Tyson
1957 Dennis Brookes Jim Burke Malcolm Hilton Gil Langley Peter Richardson
1958 Peter Loader Arthur McIntyre Collie Smith Mickey Stewart Clyde Walcott
1959 Les Jackson Roy Marshall Arthur Milton John Reid Derek Shackleton
1960 Ken Barrington Donald Carr Ray Illingworth Geoff Pullar M. J. K. Smith
1961 Neil Adcock Ted Dexter Roy McLean Raman Subba Row Vic Wilson
1962 Bill Alley Richie Benaud Alan Davidson Bill Lawry Norm O'Neill
1963 Don Kenyon Mushtaq Mohammad Peter Parfitt Phil Sharpe Fred Titmus
1964 Brian Close Charlie Griffith Conrad Hunte Rohan Kanhai Garfield Sobers
1965 Geoffrey Boycott Peter Burge Jack Flavell Graham McKenzie Bob Simpson
1966 Colin Bland John Edrich Dick Motz Peter Pollock Graeme Pollock
1967 Bob Barber Basil D'Oliveira Colin Milburn John Murray Seymour Nurse
1968 Asif Iqbal Hanif Mohammad Ken Higgs Jim Parks junior Nawab of Pataudi junior
1969 Jimmy Binks David Green Barry Richards Derek Underwood Ossie Wheatley
1970 Basil Butcher Alan Knott Majid Khan Mike Procter Don Shepherd
1971 Jack Bond Clive Lloyd Brian Luckhurst Glenn Turner Roy Virgin
1972 Geoff Arnold Bhagwat Chandrasekhar Lance Gibbs Brian Taylor Zaheer Abbas
1973 Greg Chappell Dennis Lillee Bob Massie John Snow Keith Stackpole
1974 Keith Boyce Bevan Congdon Keith Fletcher Roy Fredericks Peter Sainsbury
1975 Dennis Amiss Mike Denness Norman Gifford Tony Greig Andy Roberts
1976 Ian Chappell Peter Lee Rick McCosker David Steele Bob Woolmer
1977 Mike Brearley Gordon Greenidge Michael Holding Viv Richards Bob Taylor
1978 Ian Botham Mike Hendrick Alan Jones Ken McEwan Bob Willis
1979 David Gower John Lever Chris Old Clive Radley John Shepherd
1980 Joel Garner Sunil Gavaskar Graham Gooch Derek Randall Brian Rose
1981 Kim Hughes Robin Jackman Allan Lamb Clive Rice Vintcent van der Bijl
1982 Terry Alderman Allan Border Richard Hadlee Javed Miandad Rod Marsh
1983 Imran Khan Trevor Jesty Alvin Kallicharran Kapil Dev Malcolm Marshall
1984 Mohinder Amarnath Jeremy Coney John Emburey Mike Gatting Chris Smith
1985 Martin Crowe Larry Gomes Geoff Humpage Jack Simmons Sidath Wettimuny
1986 Phil Bainbridge Richard Ellison Craig McDermott Neal Radford Tim Robinson
1987 John Childs Graeme Hick Dilip Vengsarkar Courtney Walsh James Whitaker
1988 Jonathan Agnew Neil Foster David Hughes Peter Roebuck Saleem Malik
1989 Kim Barnett Jeff Dujon Phil Neale Franklyn Stephenson Steve Waugh
1990 Jimmy Cook Dean Jones Jack Russell Robin Smith Mark Taylor
1991 Mike Atherton Mohammad Azharuddin Alan Butcher Desmond Haynes Mark Waugh
1992 Curtly Ambrose Phillip DeFreitas Allan Donald Richie Richardson Waqar Younis
1993 Nigel Briers Martyn Moxon Ian Salisbury Alec Stewart Wasim Akram
1994 David Boon Ian Healy Merv Hughes Shane Warne Steve Watkin
1995 Brian Lara Devon Malcolm Tim Munton Steve Rhodes Kepler Wessels
1996 Dominic Cork Aravinda de Silva Angus Fraser Anil Kumble Dermot Reeve
1997 Sanath Jayasuriya[22] Mushtaq Ahmed Saeed Anwar Phil Simmons Sachin Tendulkar
1998 Matthew Elliott Stuart Law Glenn McGrath Matthew Maynard Graham Thorpe
1999 Ian Austin Darren Gough Muttiah Muralitharan Arjuna Ranatunga Jonty Rhodes
2000 Chris Cairns Rahul Dravid Lance Klusener Tom Moody Saqlain Mushtaq
2001 Mark Alleyne Martin Bicknell Andrew Caddick Justin Langer Darren Lehmann
2002 Andy Flower Adam Gilchrist Jason Gillespie V. V. S. Laxman Damien Martyn
2003 Matthew Hayden Adam Hollioake Nasser Hussain Shaun Pollock Michael Vaughan
2004 Chris Adams Andrew Flintoff Ian Harvey Gary Kirsten Graeme Smith
2005 Ashley Giles Steve Harmison Robert Key Andrew Strauss Marcus Trescothick
2006 Matthew Hoggard Simon Jones Brett Lee Kevin Pietersen Ricky Ponting
2007 Paul Collingwood Mahela Jayawardene Mohammed Yousuf Monty Panesar Mark Ramprakash
2008 Ian Bell Shivnarine Chanderpaul Ottis Gibson Zaheer Khan Ryan Sidebottom
2009 James Anderson Dale Benkenstein Mark Boucher Neil McKenzie Claire Taylor
2010 Stuart Broad Michael Clarke Graham Onions Matt Prior Graeme Swann
2011 Tamim Iqbal Eoin Morgan Chris Read Jonathan Trott Not awarded[23]
2012 Tim Bresnan Alastair Cook Glen Chapple Alan Richardson Kumar Sangakkara
2013 Nick Compton Hashim Amla Jacques Kallis Dale Steyn Marlon Samuels
2014[24] Shikhar Dhawan Charlotte Edwards Ryan Harris Chris Rogers Joe Root
2015 Moeen Ali Gary Ballance Adam Lyth Angelo Mathews Jeetan Patel
2016 Jonny Bairstow Brendon McCullum Steve Smith Ben Stokes Kane Williamson
2017 Ben Duckett Younis Khan Misbah-ul-Haq Toby Roland-Jones Chris Woakes
2018 Shai Hope Heather Knight Jamie Porter Natalie Sciver Anya Shrubsole
2019 Tammy Beaumont Rory Burns Jos Buttler Sam Curran Virat Kohli
2020 Jofra Archer Pat Cummins Simon Harmer Marnus Labuschagne Ellyse Perry
2021 Zak Crawley Jason Holder Mohammad Rizwan Dom Sibley Darren Stevens
2022 Jasprit Bumrah Devon Conway Ollie Robinson Rohit Sharma Dane van Niekerk
2023 Tom Blundell Ben Foakes Harmanpreet Kaur Daryl Mitchell Matthew Potts

See also

References

General

Specific

  1. ^ "Wisden tribute to England stars". BBC Sport. 6 April 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  2. ^ "Wisden – 1889". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  3. ^ a b c "Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  4. ^ a b Anthony Bradbury. "The first century, 1989 – Wisden's cricketers of the year". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  5. ^ a b A. S. Dixon. "Cricketers of the Year". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 April 2008. "Also I have left out of my reckoning John Wisden, founder of the Almanack, to whose memory the whole feature was devoted in the Jubilee issue of 1913—he died in 1884." As such, he is not a true Cricketer of the Year, but is included here for the sake of comprehensiveness.
  6. ^ "20 things you never knew about Wisden". ESPNcricinfo. 10 April 2006. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  7. ^ The 1889 award was subtitled Six Great Bowlers of the Year.
  8. ^ The 1890 award was subtitled Nine Great Batsmen of the Year.
  9. ^ The 1891 award was subtitled Five Great Wicket-Keepers.
  10. ^ The 1892 award was subtitled Five Great Bowlers.
  11. ^ The 1893 award was subtitled Five Batsmen of the Year.
  12. ^ The 1894 award was subtitled Five All-Round Cricketers.
  13. ^ The 1895 award was subtitled Five Young Batsmen of the Season.
  14. ^ The 1897 award was subtitled Five Cricketers of the Season.
  15. ^ The 1899 award was subtitled Five Cricketers of the Year.
  16. ^ The 1900 award was subtitled Five Cricketers of the Season.
  17. ^ The 1901 award was subtitled Mr R. E. Foster and Four Yorkshiremen.
  18. ^ The 1909 award was subtitled Lord Hawke and Four Cricketers of the Year.
  19. ^ The 1912 award was subtitled Five Members of the MCC's Team in Australia.
  20. ^ The 1919 award was subtitled Five Public School Cricketers of the Year.
  21. ^ The 1920 award was subtitled Five Batsmen of the Year.
  22. ^ "Wisden – 1997". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 April 2008. "The success of Sanath Jayasuriya in inspiring Sri Lanka to World Cup victory [i]n March 1996 also inspired a change of policy: he was chosen as one of the Five Cricketers of the Year even though he did not play in the English season."
  23. ^ Awarded to a Pakistani player but not listed as a result of alleged match-fixing. "If [the player in question] were exonerated, then it would be possible to reconsider the position," explained [Scyld] Berry. "That's why I didn't pick anyone else instead. But as things stand, we don't feel we can choose him. It's all very sad."
  24. ^ "Wisden honour for Dhawan, Edwards". Wisden India. 9 April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.

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