Wisden 5 2010

1. Has anyone mentioned it?

2. Is it a massive joke?

3...............

4. Does anybody care?

Concentrates on the Ashes Tests last summer (have we forgotten so soon?) and ignores the County Championship in awarding the accolades to Broad, Clarke, Onions, Prior & Swann. The last time this was done was in 2006 following another Ashes-winning summer when 3 England players (although only one Englishman) - Hoggard, Jones and Pietersen to 2 Australians - Lee & Ponting - were selected.

This year's choices are fairly uncontroversial with perhaps only Hilfenhaus (top wicket-taker in the series on either side with 22) unlucky not to be included at the expense of Onions. Also let's hope that the award does not have an albatross-effect that a Hollywood Oscar sometimes has. Of the three England players selected 4 years ago Jones rapidly dropped out through injury, Hoggard was dropped altogether and 2005 still remains KP's high point as a Test player.

Of the 4 selected this year Onions seems to be going the same way as Jones, Prior may find his place coming under increasing threat from Kieswetter, Broad seems to be sliding back down the learning curve and only Swann can feel confident of regular selection.

I thought Swann and Clarke were ok, but with no stand out performers (a bit like MBEs/OBEs now - everyone's got one) I suppose they just picked out the best of a not so exciting series.

the wisden cricketers of the year is a joke, given that a player can only win it once. the cricinfo awards have more credibility imo.

at least with the world test xi and leading cricketer of the year awards, wisden have finally entered the 21st century.

To be fair, and it really doesn't need saying every year. The wisden awards are for the previous years English domestic season only. I think on that basis the choices were fine.

okay, didnt know that. still think only winning it once devalues the award. so the likes of sachin and lara - have they won it? i assume lara would have for his 501*. is it domestic/ashes only or is the english test summer also in scope?

Yep, sure both of them have. It's basically recognition for achievements during the previous english season. In either county cricket or tests.

WCOY is a bit like a superior version of a county cap. You can only get that once too. It marks the first time a player is regarded as "exceptional" or makes some kind of an impact in an English fc season. Lara won it in 1995 for his performances for Warwickshire the previous season which included his 501* and Tendulkar won it in 1997 for his performances on his first tour of England the year previously which included Test centuries at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

cheers Allan.

Allan D wrote:and Tendulkar won it in 1997 for his performances on his first tour of England the year previously which included Test centuries at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

Tendulkar played in Gooch's 333 match in 1990 Al

JKLever wrote:

Allan D wrote:and Tendulkar won it in 1997 for his performances on his first tour of England the year previously which included Test centuries at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

Tendulkar played in Gooch's 333 match in 1990 Al

Quite right, JK, 1996 was his second tour of England not his first, as I wrongly stated in my post above. In fact Tendulkar played in all 3 Tests on the 1990 tour, batting at 6, and made his maiden hundred in the 3rd Test at Old Trafford at the age of 17years 352 days, the (then) second youngest ever player to do so (now the third) and the youngest ever to do so against England beating Archie Jackson (by almost 2 years) at the Adelaide Oval in February 1929.

Looking at the selections made by Wisden in 1991 of Mike Atherton, Mark Butcher, Desmond Haynes (for his performances for Middlesex), Mark Waugh (in his final season for Essex) and Tendulkar's captain, Azharuddin, SRT might have felt a bit miffed he was overlloked as he would have become the youngest fc recipient of the award (discounting the schoolboy selections of the WWI editions).

Apologies for the error.

So, Steve Stubbings missed out then?

Apparently so. I noticed that he had been 'released' by Derbyshire at the end of last season, presumably for good behaviour.

I would have thought a number of the Aussies- Hilfenhaus, Siddle,Katich, Hauritz & North had a shout but like uh.. y'know who cares.

Didn't Prior scrape an average of about 30 in the Ashes?

Allan D wrote:Apparently so. I noticed that he had been 'released' by Derbyshire at the end of last season, presumably for good behaviour.

Nowhere 'down' to go after leaving Direby. Apart from hell...

JKLever wrote:

Allan D wrote:Apparently so. I noticed that he had been 'released' by Derbyshire at the end of last season, presumably for good behaviour.

Nowhere 'down' to go after leaving Direby. Apart from hell...

I thought Glamorgan had enough batsmen.

Glamorgan can never have enough batsmen.

Prior? bwahahahaha

lardbucket wrote:Prior? bwahahahaha

Must be for his keeping, which to be fair was pretty damn good.

JKLever wrote:

lardbucket wrote:Prior? bwahahahaha

Must be for his keeping, which to be fair was pretty damn good.

Which, in the context of Matt Prior, means he didn't screw up too many catches.

I think by, say, Jack Russell standards, it wasn't pretty damn good.


Prior is godfrey evans and gilly combined compred with haddit

Spoilsport...

Someone edited my post there. The Godfrey Evans stuff.

I feel a flounce coming on.

To be fair, it was probably an exercise in spastication by someone pressing the edit button instead of the quote button and not realising. Because of the spastication.

Dello wrote:Someone edited my post there. The Godfrey Evans stuff.

I feel a flounce coming on.

No Jay, don't flounce, who will conspicuously ignore the goings on if you're not here?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dello wrote:To be fair, it was probably an exercise in spastication by someone pressing the edit button instead of the quote button and not realising. Because of the spastication.

That's probably why any post edits whould have an 'edited by' thing automatically. Can you have a word with the hosts and see if they can fix that?