Wisden Cricketers of the Year

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The cover of the 2005 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
The cover of the 2005 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Each year, five cricketers are named as Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the pages of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily, although not exclusively, on their "influence on the previous English season". From 2000 to 2003, inclusive, the award was made based on all cricket around the world, but this ended in 2004 when the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World award was introduced.

The award began with the naming of "Six Great Bowlers of the Year" in 1889, and continued with "Nine Great Batsmen of the Year" in 1890, and "Five Great Wicket-Keepers" in 1891. Since 1897, with a few notable exceptions, the award has recognised the five players of the year, and five players have been named every year since 1947. No players were named in 1916 or 1917, or in the period from 1941 to 1946, because little first-class cricket was played during the First World War and Second World War, respectively. Five schoolboy cricketers were named in 1918 and 1919, to replace the usual selection, but this practice was not repeated in the 1940s.

Four players have been honoured as sole recipients: W. G. Grace (1896), John Wisden (1913, 29 years posthumously and 50 years after he retired from first-class cricket), Plum Warner (1921) and Jack Hobbs (1926). The latter two selections break the more recent rule that a player may receive the award only once in his career. Hobbs was first honoured in 1909, but was selected a second time in 1926 to honour his breaking W. G. Grace's record of 126 first-class hundreds; 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.

Since 1998, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia has selected an annual Wisden Australia's Cricketer of the Year, and five Wisden Cricketers of the Century were selected by a 100-member panel of cricket experts in 2000.

Contents

[edit] List of Cricketers of the Year

[edit] Since 1981

[edit] World War II - 1980

[edit] World War I to World War II

[edit] Before World War I

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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