Wisden Cricketers of the Year

The Five Wisden Cricketers of the Year represent a tradition that dates back in the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack to 1889, making this the oldest individual award in cricket. The selection of the Five is a perk of being editor, and it is up to him whether he wishes to take soundings from others.

A gathering of Wisden Cricketers of the Year at the 2005 Wisden dinner. Left to right, Ashley Giles (2005), Andrew Strauss (2005), M.J.K. Smith (1960), Donald Carr (1960), Tom Graveney (1953), Rob Key (2005) and Steve Harmison (2005).

Excellence in the previous English summer is the major criterion for inclusion in the Five, but not the only one. In fact, the award is a recognition of a player’s influence on the last English season, allowing Matthew Engel, editor of Wisden 1997, to select Sanath Jayasuriya, who had not played in England in the preceding year. However, his batting at the 1996 World Cup changed the shape of the one-day game for good.

Just as importantly, no one can be chosen more than once. Well, two exceptions prove that particular rule: after being named a Cricketer of the Year in 1904, Plum Warner was singled out for a special tribute in 1921, while Sir Jack Hobbs trod the same exceptional path – selection for the Five in 1909 and a solo tribute 17 years later, in 1926. Claire Taylor, in 2009, was the first woman to receive the accolade.

Since 1926, every Wisden bar eight wartime Almanacks and the 2011 edition* has named a set of five. And since 2004, these have been complemented by the selection of the Leading Cricketer in the World.

1889: George Lohmann, Johnny Briggs, John Ferris, Charles Turner, Sammy Woods, Bobby Peel

1890: Bobby Abel, Billy Barnes, Billy Gunn, Louis Hall, Robert Henderson, Maurice Read, Arthur Shrewsbury, Frank Sugg, Albert Ward

1891: Jack Blackham, Gregor MacGregor, Dick Pilling, Mordecai Sherwin, Henry Wood

1892: William Attewell, JT Hearne, Frederick Martin, Arthur Mold, John Sharpe

1893: Herbie Hewett, Lionel Palairet, Walter Read, Stanley Scott, Andrew Stoddart

1894: Georg Giffen, Alex Hearne, Stanley Jackson, Harry Trott, Ted Wainwright

1895: Bill Brockwell, Jack Brown, C. B. Fry, Tom Hayward, Archie MacLaren

1896: WG Grace

1897: Syd Gregory, Dick Lilley, Ranjitsinhji, Tom Richardson, Hugh Trumble

1898: Frederick Bull, Willis Cuttell, Frank Druce, Gilbert Jessop, Jack Mason

1899: Wilfred Rhodes, William Storer, Charlie Townsend, Albert Trott, William Lockwood

1900: Joe Darling, Clem Hill, Arthur Jones, Monty Noble, Robert Moore

1901: 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: Walter Brearley, Lord Hawkew, 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: Frank Foster, J. W. Hearne, Sep Kinneir, Phil Mead, Herbert Strudwick

1913: There were no Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1913

1914: Major Booth, George Gunn, Bill Hitch, Albert Relf, Lionel Tennyson

1915: Johnny Douglas, Percy Fender, Wally Hardinge, Donald Knight, Sydney Smith

1916-17: There were no Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1916 and 1917

1918: Harry Calder, John Firth, Clement Gibson, Gerard Rotherham, Greville Stevens

1919: Percy Adams, Percy Chapman, Adrian Gore, Lionel Hedges, Norman Partridge

1920: 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

[caption id=”attachment_141168″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Jack Hobbs and Pelham Warner are the only two players to be named Wisden Cricketers of the Year on more than one occasion[/caption]

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 Langridege, Nawab of Pataudi sr, Hedley Verity

1933: Ewart Astill, Freddie Brown, Alec Kennedy, CK 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

1941-1946: There were no Wisden Cricketers of the Year between 1941 and 1946

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, Roy 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

[caption id=”attachment_141175″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Claire Taylor was the first woman to be named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2009[/caption]

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, Micky Stewart, Clyde Walcott

1959: Les Jackson, Roy Marshall, Arthur Milton, John Reid, Derek Shackleton

1960: Ken Barrington, Donald Carr, Ray Illingworth, Geoff Pullar, MJK 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 jr, Nawab of Pataudi jr

1969: Jimmy Binks, David Green, Barry Richards, Derek Underwood, Ossie Wheatley

1970: Basil Butcher, Alan Knott, Majid Khan, Mike Proctor, 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

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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 Whittaker

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, 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

[caption id=”attachment_141176″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Moeen Ali, one of the Five in 2015, being presented that year’s Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack by Wisden editor Lawrence Booth[/caption]