Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year

[aussie_beater]

It's all a question of tradition, not "quirky theory" - I believe that they've traditionally been Editor's picks, and based only on the Engliush Cricket season.

If that's the case, then they should just stick to English county performances or maybe new players in the county circuit or something like that. But as far as I can recall, they have never done that in the last 20 years or more and they pick one or two international cricketers of repute whose nomination makes sense and then club them together with others. That's the "quirky" part and no tradition within my comprehension can explain that.

 

[marc71178]

If that's the case, then they should just stick to English county performances or maybe new players in the county circuit or something like that. But as far as I can recall, they have never done that in the last 20 years or more and they pick one or two international cricketers of repute whose nomination makes sense and then club them together with others.

They've only selected International players who've done well in England in the year before - either touring with their national side (I seem to remember after 1997 4 of the 5 were Aussies), or playing for counties.

 

[Neil Pickup]

02 A Flower, AC Gilchrist, JN Gillespie, VVS Laxman, DR Martyn
01 MW Alleyne, MP Bicknell, AR Caddick, JL Langer, DS Lehmann
00 CL Cairns, R Dravid, L Klusener, TM Moody, Saqlain Mushtaq
99 ID Austin, D Gough, M Muralitharan, A Ranatunga, JN Rhodes
98 MTG Elliott, SG Law, GD McGrath, MP Maynard, GP Thorpe
97 ST Jayasuriya, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar, PV Simmons, SR Tendulkar
96 DG Cork, PA de Silva, ARC Fraser, A Kumble, DA Reeve

And so it goes on.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

A bit surprised not to see BCL there.

 

[marc71178]

He probably got it in the 1995 copy.

 

[aussie_beater]

They've only selected International players who've done well in England in the year before - either touring with their national side (I seem to remember after 1997 4 of the 5 were Aussies), or playing for counties.

Laxman didn't really do anything in England in 2001 to get listed in 2002. I am sure there are more such names which don't fit the explanation that its performances in England that matter.

 

[marc71178]

2002's issue was the first one where the criteria changed from being solely based on the English season to being based on worldwide performances.