Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 74 i Wisden Cricket Monthly

Wisden Cricket Monthly columnist, UK editor of ESPNcricinfo and former editor of The Cricketer @miller_cricket Exactly six months separate the birthdays of Usman Khawaja (December 18, 1986) and Moeen Ali (June 18, 1987), the two most significant Muslim players to have represented Australia and England. Closer to a decade separates their respective acts of on-field protest that, in each case, profoundly exposed the hypocrisy of world cricket’s governing body. At the Ageas Bowl in July 2014 – on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, no less – Moeen sought and received permission from the ECB to take the field in a Test against India wearing “Free Palestine” and “Save Gaza” wristbands, in a bid to borrow the country’s mood of understandably sombre reflection, and turn…

The former England captain turned commentator on learning from past mistakes, the need for a shake-up of the county game, and why the national side shouldn’t fear losing their best players to franchise leagues Australian writer and broadcaster @melindafarrell "Within cricket, there’s only a few people who know the real me, and they know how much I love cricket, and how much I completely care about the game being available to absolutely everyone There are two things a reporter expects when Michael Vaughan is the subject of an interview. One is that he never tires of discussing cricket, so deeply does the game run through his veins. A case in point: after talking for an hour to WCM at the SCG during the third Test, he asked to continue the…

An alternative prize will be provided if the winner is aged under 18, or if requested *Only available to UK residents We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity LETTER OF THE MONTH How to revamps ODIs In a follow-up to AB de Villiers’ suggestion in last month’s magazine that 50-over matches might benefit from a twoinnings concept [meaning four innings across a match], I thought I would share ideas I have been touting to friends for a couple of years. The 50-over game does need a revamp. The public and the players’ ‘focal length’ has been shortened by T20. So here is a template that will encompass the dynamism of T20 but include some of the more cerebral aspects of the longer format: – Two innings…

ENGLAND 8 Tests, 606 runs at 43.28, strike rate 88.46, 1 hundred, 3 fifties 40% of our panel voted for him The knives were out after Crawley failed to make a score on last February’s tour of New Zealand but the willowy opener repaid the faith of Stokes and McCullum to finish as England’s leading run-scorer in the Ashes, memorably crunching the first ball of the series to the boundary on a febrile opening day at Edgbaston and hardly taking his foot off the accelerator for the remainder of contest, striking at 89 across the five Tests and averaging 53. The confidence with which he played Pat Cummins in particular demonstrated why the England think tank had refused to budge from their assessment that Crawley’s quality against the quicks demanded…

ENGLAND 8 Tests, 787 runs at 65.58, strike rate 76.33, 2 hundreds, 5 fifties; 8 wickets at 35.62, economy 3.51 77% of our panel voted for him Having missed out on our side in 2022 despite making five Test tons, Root returns to our XI for 2023 despite notching only two – both of which came in England defeats, in Wellington and Birmingham. After a disappointing second half to 2022, Root was back to his classy best in New Zealand last winter, averaging north of 100 across the two-Test series and carrying that form into the Ashes with an impish century at Edgbaston. He was steady rather than dominant for the remainder of the series but his second-innings 91 at The Oval was pivotal in ensuring the hosts took a…

INDIA 7 Tests, 33 wickets at 19.39, economy 2.39, 2 five-wicket hauls, 1 ten-wicket match; 281 runs at 35.12, strike rate 41.62, 2 fifties 53% of our panel voted for him After five months out of the game with a knee ligament injury, India’s all-action all-rounder reemphasised his importance to his team’s cause by taking seven in the match and defying Australia with a gritty 70 on his return at Nagpur last February. In the following match at Delhi, Jadeja collected his second 10-wicket match haul in Tests, scooping his eighth Player of the Match award on home soil to put him level with Sachin Tendulkar. Among Indians, only Anil Kumble has more (nine). He impressed in a losing cause against the same opposition in the WTC final – hitting…

Do you know someone deserving of a place in the Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame? Email editorial@wisden.com Numbers never paint a full cricketing picture – not in a club career that sees you face Allan Donald, Shane Warne, Ryan Harris, Chris Cairns, Fanie de Villiers, Viv Richards, Steve Waugh and many more – but they can provide a useful sketch. With 16,182 Lancashire League runs at 30.30 – only four amateurs to have broken five figures did so at over 30 – East Lancs opener David Pearson is one of this storied competition’s finest homegrown players. Among amateurs, only two men have more runs, while only one can better his 13 hundreds. He has scored a fifty on every ground in the league. Only five men have played more…

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack editor and Daily Mail writer @BoothCricket The recent two-match series between South Africa and India ended as many now do – with a snippy debate, this time about a grassy Cape Town surface which, at 642 balls, produced the shortest completed game in Test history, and prompted Rohit Sharma to tell “everyone” to “keep their mouths shut” about pitches in India. The rumpus not only overshadowed a superb performance from his bowlers, who had just blown their hosts away for 55 and 176, but relegated to the margins the first-Test efforts of Dean Elgar, whose 185 at Centurion to set up an innings win was one of the knocks of the year. Instead, Elgar’s parting shots as a Test cricketer were scores of 4 and 12 on…

“Top batter for England will be Harry Brook, and I’ ve been told not to pick Kohli, but how can you not? He was godlike in South Africa” YAS RANA Wisden.com head of content England’s unbeaten run under Stokes’ captaincy is almost certain to end. India’s home record is astounding having lost just three Tests, let alone series, on home soil over the last 11 years. India prevailed against England on a series of spin-friendly pitches in 2021 but conditions may well differ this time around and it is on flatter surfaces that England’s frailties will be heightened. England travel with a startlingly inexperienced group of spinners – much will be expected of Jack Leach, who last played more than seven months ago – and without any of the all-round…

ANAND VASU Indian author and journalist @anandvasu RAshwin is on the cusp. When England arrive in India, he will have 95 Test appearances to his name. On India’s recent tour of South Africa, Ashwin featured in one Test, but that was only because Ravindra Jadeja was injured. This has been the pattern for Ashwin when India have played abroad recently. But it’s a different story at home. If the 37-year-old stays fit he will lead the attack in each of the five Tests, and you can be sure there will be two other spinners in the XI given the kind of pitches India like to play on at home. Ashwin is also on the verge of another milestone: he needs 10 scalps to get to 500 Test wickets. Among spinners,…

AUSTRALIA 12 Tests, 919 runs at 41.77, strike rate 75.57, 1 hundred, 5 fifties; 4 wickets at 37, economy 4.24 70% of our panel voted for him "Hopefully I don’t get dropped too much in the future,” said Travis Head after the first day of the most important Test match of the year. He was at The Oval, 146 not out in the World Test Championship final, having dominated a 251-run stand with Steve Smith to put Australia firmly on course to be crowned champions. To hear Head speak about not being dropped after playing one of the great Test innings of recent times might seem curious, but his words reflected the struggles he has had to contend with. He was dropped for the final Test of the 2019 Ashes…

THE YEAR IN NUMBERS 17 Number of sixes hit by Ben Stokes, the most by any player 134 Number of fours hit by Usman Khawaja, the most by any player 91.51 Harry Brook’s strike rate, the highest by any batter to score 100 runs 54 Number of keeping dismissals by Alex Carey – 17 clear of his nearest rival, West Indian stumper Joshua Da Silva 32.2 The strike rate of West Indian left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, the best by any bowler to have taken 20 wickets 20 Number of catches taken by Steve Smith, the most by any nonwicketkeeper 245 Highest individual innings of the year, made by Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis against Ireland last April 5.72 Economy rate of New Zealand seamer Neil Wagner, the worst of any bowler…

ANDREW MCDONALD AUSTRALIA Almost two years on, the fallout from Justin Langer’s messy ousting as Australia’s head coach still lingers. Only a couple of months ago, Matthew Hayden told this publication that he “wouldn’t have any part of trying to coach Australia” if offered the opportunity because he felt his former opening partner had been treated so shoddily by both Cricket Australia and the players he had coached to Ashes and T20 World Cup glory. Hayden, somewhat ironically, then went on to bemoan the lack of “former greats” employed by the governing body in leadership roles. “ That, to me, is surprising considering we’ve just come out of the three greater eras or decades of Australian cricket.” To Hayden – and to other former teammates who leapt to Langer ’s…

1. CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU SRI LANKA | 8 ODIs, 415 runs at 69.16, 2 hundreds, 1 fifty, SR 125; 1 wicket at 98, economy 6.53 | 16 T20Is, 470 runs at 31.33, 3 fifties, SR 131; 8 wickets at 26.62, economy 5.97 Sri Lanka’s captain had a sensational year as leader of a rapidly improving side. Athapaththu’s all-gunsblazing approach set up maiden series wins against New Zealand (in ODIs) and England (in T20Is), while her innings of 140* from 80 balls against the Kiwis in Galle last July was arguably the innings of the year. 2. BETH MOONEY (WK) AUSTRALIA | 2 Tests, 191 runs at 47.75, 1 fifty, SR 53.65 | 13 ODIs, 439 runs at 62.71, 1 hundred, 2 fifties, SR 90 | 14 T20Is, 410 runs at 41,…

WIN! *This quiz is open to UK residents only. Send in your answers via email (editorial@wisden.com) or via post (Time Warp, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Fourth Floor, Bedser Stand, Kia Oval, Kennington, London, SE11 5SS). Entries must be received by February 12, 2024. 1. 5 years ago… On December 30, 2018, India beat Australia by 137 runs in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, a victory which ultimately led to their first series win in the country. Which Indian opener, having not been included in the original squad, made scores of 76 and 42 on Test debut? 2. 10 years ago… On December 16, 2013, James Anderson bowled what was then the joint most expensive over in Test history during the third Ashes Test at Perth. Who scored all 28…

Cricket prides itself on being the most literary of sports. It has generated by far the most books, unless chess is counted as a sport (and the vast majority of books about chess are technical in nature). Although football has been outselling cricket for about 30 years in Britain, this has not been the case in the broader Commonwealth – Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography reportedly attracted 1.5 million pre-orders. Even if baseball, boxing and bullfighting can boast a literature of roughly equal vintage and richness, devotees of cricket are confident that theirs is the noblest. Benny Green, jazz saxophonist and Wisden anthologist, pointed for instance to the “curious symbiotic relationship between cricket and the writing of good English”. The reasons for this relationship have often been rehearsed. First, cricket in its…

So did you have a good Christmas? We seriously doing this? Well, thought I’d make the effort, new year, new start. I know January can be a blue month but there are things you can do, stand in front of a SAD lamp and mainline some Vitamin D… Sorry, are you Gwyneth Paltrow? Am I being Gooped? I’m just saying there’s always stuff to look forward to. The first flush of spring is just around the corner. On the cricket front, England head to India for five Test matches. That’ll help assuage the gloom? Well, hardly. It’s a bit like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. How so? Test cricket – can’t you hear the clanging chimes of doom? Ooh, Bono. I’m serious. You don’t have to be Nostradamus…

Lancashire Dale Benkenstein, the former South Africa Test batter, has been appointed as the club’s new head coach, succeeding Glen Chapple. The 49-year-old arrives at Old Trafford with a wealth of county experience having captained Durham to the County Championship title in 2008 and more recently coached Hampshire and Gloucestershire. He will be supported on the coaching staff by club stalwart Steven Croft, who has called time on his firstclass career and signed a T20-only contract. Middlesex The Seaxes have snapped up fast bowler Henry Brookes from Warwickshire, with the 24-year-old penning a three-year contract. A product of the Bears academy, Brookes took 89 wickets in 33 first-class matches after debuting for the club in 2017. “He is a player that has huge amounts of genuine talent, can bowl with…

JOHN STERN Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-atlarge @Stern_Words Tony Brown was a tall, imposing figure. “You knew where you stood with him,” Mike Gatting tells WCM about England’s tour manager of their 1984/85 trip to India. He was “a stickler for standards”, according to the Wisden obituary following his death in 2020. Brown had been a successful captain of Gloucestershire and was secretary of Somerset at the time of the tour. This overseas assignment should have been an honour but it was quickly turning into a nightmare. Three hours after England’s arrival in Delhi at the end of October 1984, the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, revenge for the temple massacre in Amritsar five months earlier. “It is all a terrible shock, of course,” Brown…

AUSTRALIA 13 Tests, 1,210 runs at 52.60, strike rate 43.33, 3 hundreds, 6 fifties 100% of our panel voted for him Khawaja arrived in Nagpur last spring as a 36-year-old novice, a player whose talents had spread thinly across a handful of innocuous away Tests, none of which had taken place in India. A cathartic series in Pakistan in 2022, returning to the land of his birth, had gone well. But the flakier tracks of India promised a much tougher assignment. After two single-digit scores in the first Test, the old doubts returned, before a classy 81 in the second demonstrated his sharper technical acuity against spin, founded on staying back to almost everything and coupled with the freedom to treat every moment as a joyously unforeseen commission. In the…

IRELAND 4 Tests, 351 runs at 43.87, strike rate 64.40, 1 hundred, 1 fifty; 5 catches, 2 stumpings 40% of our panel voted for him "It wasn’t something that I’d ever planned for.” For Lorcan Tucker, growing up, Test cricket was a dream in both senses. He was hooked on the sport by the twin delights of the 2005 Ashes and Ireland’s 2007 World Cup campaign. But with Ireland still an Associate member as he made his way up the age groups, it might have remained just that. Even having been granted Full Member status, Ireland came into 2023 having played just three Tests in total. Last year ’s schedule allowed them to more than double that tally and they entered the first of four matches, against Bangladesh, with six…

Only six players in the history of Test cricket have played more matches than Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and no one has suffered more defeats. Across a 22-year Test career which included 164 matches, 11,867 runs, 30 centuries and 27,935 deliveries faced, the Guyanese left-hander experienced victory on only 39 occasions, losing almost half the games he played. When he was dropped in 2015, signalling the end of his international career at the age of 41, he expressed his frustration at what he felt was a premature axing. “I still think I have a lot to offer,” he said, having shed blood, sweat and tears for the cause as a once mighty institution collapsed around him. Almost six years on his from his retirement, at a time when players’ commitment to the…

At the heart of club cricket SCOTT OLIVER Freelance sportswriter and stalwart club cricketer @reverse_ sweeper As well as lying smack-bang in the centre of England, Derby and Nottingham sit at the bottom of their respectively longitudinal counties like magic 8-balls in a Christmas stocking. Drive south, and you’re quickly in another county; head north, through the old Sherwood Forest or over the Peaks, and it’s quite a jaunt before you hit Anywhere Else. Between the two cities runs a 17-mile stretch of the A52 known as Brian Clough Way, in honour of a football manager who, after successful spells at Derby County and Nottingham Forest, is one of the few things about which these East Midlands neighbours won’t bicker, given the opportunity. Which brings us neatly to the cricket.…

"There was a tree square of the wicket in the garden and Dad drew a circle in white paint at its base. My job was to hit that spot every single time The house next door to us in La Lucia, Durban was put up for sale when I was a young boy and Dad decided to buy it. He then had it knocked it down and turned the plot into a cricket pitch. Talk about every boy’s dream! Dad could see my brother ‘Kippy’ [Chris, who later played eight Tests for England] and I were talented and he was determined we should make the most of it. I’m pretty sure my dad imported the first bowling machine into South Africa. We had that set up on the pitch next…