![Bradman&Bat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Bradman%26Bat.jpg)
The ''Wisden'' Leading Cricketer in the World is an annual
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
award selected by ''
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
''. It was established in 2004, to select the best cricketer based upon their performances anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year.
A notional list of previous winners, spanning from 1900 to 2002, was published in the 2007 edition of ''Wisden''.
Since 1889, ''Wisden'' has published a list of
Cricketers of the Year
The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...
, typically selecting five cricketers that had the greatest impact during the previous English cricket season. However, in the 2000 edition, the editor
Matthew Engel
Matthew Lewis Engel (born 11 June 1951) is a British writer, journalist and editor.
Early life and education
Engel was born in Northampton, son of solicitor Max David Engel (1912-2005) and Betty Ruth (née Lesser). His grandfather had escaped anti ...
recognised that the best players in the world were typically no longer playing English domestic cricket, and opted to select the Cricketers of the Year based on their performances anywhere in the world. This criterion was applied for the following three years, but in 2004 it reverted to being based on the English season, and a Leading Cricketer in the World was also selected.
The recipient of the award is selected by the editor of ''Wisden'', with advice from cricket experts. An Australian,
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its "golden era", between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 20 ...
was chosen as the first winner of the award, for scoring 1,503 runs in international cricket, including eleven
centuries
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
during 2003.
In the 2007 edition of ''Wisden'', a list of winners for previous years was published. A sixteen-person panel helped to select the winners, which Engel described as the cricketer that "would have been the first name down in the World XI to play Mars".
It was decided that the first year that would be listed was 1900, as prior to that Engel claimed international cricket was too "inchoate and haphazard to make comparison sensible".
No awards were made for the periods of the World Wars, leaving a list of 93 winners. During this selection,
Don Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...
was listed the most, winning on ten occasions, while
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...
was the leading cricketer eight times. Engel noted that despite attempts to the contrary, the award maintains cricket's bias towards batsmen.
List of award winners
Actual winners
![Kumar_Sangakkara_bat_in_hand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Kumar_Sangakkara_bat_in_hand.JPG)
*''Note that each year's Leading Cricketer of the World is announced in the following year's ''Wisden'', so the 2003 winner was announced in 2004, and so on.''
Notional winners
Multiple winners
![Shane_Warne_bowling_2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Shane_Warne_bowling_2009.jpg)
Unlike ''Wisden''s Cricketers of the Year, players can be recognised more than once as the Leading Cricketer in the World, and eighteen players have been selected for multiple years.
The majority of these have won the award twice, but six players have been recognised for three or more years:
Don Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...
,
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...
,
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry Hobbs (16 December 1882– 21 December 1963), always known as Jack Hobbs, was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as "The Mast ...
,
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...
,
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...
and
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...
. In the 2007 edition which published the notional historical winners, Engel noted with "surprise and pleasure" that the first five players were the same as had been selected as ''Wisden''s five
Cricketers of the Century.
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...
and Warne have both been selected as notional and actual winners, while
Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...
was the first player to be recognised twice by ''Wisden'' as an actual winner since 2004.
Kumar Sangakkara
Kumara Chokshananda Sangakkara ( si, කුමාර් චොක්ශනාද සංගක්කාර; born 27 October 1977) is a Sri Lankan cricket commentator, former professional cricketer, businessman, ICC Hall of Fame inductee and the ...
has since similarly been selected twice, and in 2012 he became the first player to be recognised twice in one edition of ''Wisden'', as both Leading Cricketer in the World and a Cricketer of the Year.
Winners by country
Cricketers from eight of the twelve
Test
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
playing nations have been recognised for the award by ''Wisden'', with
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
not represented. Players from
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
dominate the list, having won more than half of the time, although this is disproportionately the case in the notional list. Prior to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, 34 of the 36 winners played for Australia or England. The "actual" award winners are more evenly distributed; Indian players have won six times, English players have won four times, Australian and Sri Lankan players have won three times, whilst players from South Africa have received the award twice since 2004.
See also
*
Six Giants of the Wisden Century
The "Six Giants of the Wisden Century" are six cricketers who were judged by Sir Neville Cardus in 1963 to have been the most notable players of the previous 100 years. Cardus made his selection at the request of ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' fo ...
*
Wisden Australia's Cricketer of the Year
Each year from 1998 to 2005 '' Wisden Australia'' selected one Australian cricketer as ''Wisden Australia'' Cricketers of the Year. The award recognised that player's contribution to cricket in Australia in the previous season, in a similar manne ...
*
Wisden Cricketers of the Century
The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Century are five cricketers who were judged to be the most prominent players of the 20th century, as selected by a 100-member panel of cricket experts appointed by ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' in 2000. The 97 me ...
*
ICC Awards
The ICC Awards are an annual set of sports awards for international cricket, which recognise and honour the best international cricket players of the previous 12 months. The awards were introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in ...
References
{{featured list
Cricket awards and rankings
Wisden