Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year

The Five Cricketers of the Year represent a tradition that dates back in Wisden 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.

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 then, every Wisden bar eight wartime almanacks has named a set of five. And since 2004, these have been complemented by the selection of the Leading Cricketer in the World.

1889 - Six Great Bowlers of the Year J Briggs, JJ Ferris, GA Lohmann, R Peel, CTB Turner, SMJ Woods.

1890 - Nine Great Batsmen of the Year R Abel, W Barnes, W Gunn, L Hall, R Henderson, JM Read, A Shrewsbury snr, FH Sugg, A Ward.

1891 - Five Great Wicket-Keepers JM Blackham, G MacGregor, R Pilling, M Sherwin, H Wood.

1892 - Five Great Bowlers W Attewell, JT Hearne, F Martin, AW Mold, JW Sharpe.

1893 - Five Batsmen of the Year HT Hewett, LCH Palairet, WW Read, SW Scott, AE Stoddart.

1894 - Five All-Round Cricketers G Giffen, A Hearne, FS Jackson, GHS Trott, E Wainwright.

1895 - Five Young Batsmen of the Season W Brockwell, JT Brown, CB Fry, TW Hayward, AC MacLaren.

1896 WG Grace.

1897 - Five Cricketers of the Season SE Gregory, AFA Lilley, KS Ranjitsinhji, T Richardson, H Trumble.

1898 - Five Cricketers of the Year FG Bull, WR Cuttell, NF Druce, GL Jessop, JR Mason.

1899 - Five Great Players of the Season WH Lockwood, W Rhodes, W Storer, CL Townsend, AE Trott.

1900 - Five Cricketers of the Season J Darling, C Hill, AO Jones, MA Noble, RM Poore.

1901 - Mr R.E.Foster and Four Yorkshiremen RE Foster, S Haigh, GH Hirst, TL Taylor, J Tunnicliffe.

1902 LC Braund, CP McGahey, F Mitchell, WG Quaife, JT Tyldesley.

1903 WW Armstrong, CJ Burnup, J Iremonger, JJ Kelly, VT Trumper.

1904 C Blythe, JR Gunn, AE Knight, W Mead, PF Warner.

1905 BJT Bosanquet, EA Halliwell, J Hallows, PA Perrin, RH Spooner.

1906 D Denton, WS Lees, GJ Thompson, J Vine, LG Wright.

1907 JN Crawford, A Fielder, EG Hayes, KL Hutchings, NA Knox.

1908 AW Hallam, RO Schwarz, FA Tarrant, AEE Vogler, TG Wass.

1909 - Lord Hawke and Four Cricketers of the Year W Brearley, Lord Hawke, JB Hobbs, A Marshal, JT Newstead.

1910 W Bardsley, SF Barnes, DW Carr, AP Day, VS Ransford.

1911 HK Foster, A Hartley, CB Llewellyn, WC Smith, FE Woolley.

1912 - Five Members of the MCC's Team in Australia FR Foster, JW Hearne, SP Kinneir, CP Mead, H Strudwick.

1913 John Wisden - Personal Recollections.

1914 MW Booth, G Gunn, JW Hitch, AE Relf, LH Tennyson.

1915 JWHT Douglas, PGH Fender, HTW Hardinge, DJ Knight, SG Smith.

1916-1917 No portraits appeared.

1918 - School Bowlers of the Year HL Calder, JDE Firth, CH Gibson, GA Rotherham, GTS Stevens.

1919 - Five Public School Cricketers of the Year PW Adams, APF Chapman, AC Gore, LP Hedges, NE Partridge.

1920 A Ducat, EH Hendren, P Holmes, H Sutcliffe, GE Tyldesley.

1921 PF Warner.

1922 H Ashton, JL Bryan, JM Gregory, CG Macartney, EA McDonald.

1923 AW Carr, AP Freeman, CWL Parker, CAG Russell, A Sandham.

1924 - Five Bowlers of the Year AER Gilligan, R Kilner, GG Macaulay, CH Parkin, MW Tate.

1925 RH Catterall, JCW MacBryan, HW Taylor, RK Tyldesley, WW Whysall.

1926 - Special Portrait: JB Hobbs.

1927 G Geary, H Larwood, J Mercer, WAS Oldfield, WM Woodfull.

1928 RC Blunt, C Hallows, WR Hammond, DR Jardine, VWC Jupp.

1929 LEG Ames, G Duckworth, M Leyland, SJ Staples, JC White.

1930 EH Bowley, KS Duleepsinhji, HGO Owen-Smith, RWV Robins, RES Wyatt.

1931 DG Bradman, CV Grimmett, BH Lyon, IAR Peebles, MJL Turnbull.

1932 WE Bowes, CS Dempster, James Langridge, Nawab of Pataudi snr, H Verity.

1933 WE Astill, FR Brown, AS Kennedy, CK Nayudu, W Voce.

1934 AH Bakewell, GA Headley, MS Nichols, LF Townsend, CF Walters.

1935 SJ McCabe, WJ O'Reilly, GAE Paine, WH Ponsford, CIJ Smith.

1936 HB Cameron, ERT Holmes, B Mitchell, D Smith, AW Wellard.

1937 CJ Barnett, WH Copson, AR Gover, VM Merchant, TS Worthington.

1938 TWJ Goddard, J Hardstaff jnr, L Hutton, JH Parks, E Paynter.

1939 HT Bartlett, WA Brown, DCS Compton, K Farnes, A Wood.

1940 LN Constantine, WJ Edrich, WW Keeton, AB Sellers, DVP Wright.

1947 AV Bedser, LB Fishlock, MH Mankad, TPB Smith, C Washbrook.

1948 MP Donnelly, A Melville, AD Nourse, JDB Robertson, NWD Yardley.

1949 AL Hassett, WA Johnston, RR Lindwall, AR Morris, D Tallon.

1950 TE Bailey, RO Jenkins, JG Langridge, RT Simpson, B Sutcliffe.

1951 TG Evans, S Ramadhin, AL Valentine, ED Weekes, FMM Worrell.

1952 R Appleyard, HE Dollery, JC Laker, PBH May, EAB Rowan.

1953 H Gimblett, TW Graveney, DS Sheppard, WS Surridge, FS Trueman.

1954 RN Harvey, GAR Lock, KR Miller, JH Wardle, W Watson.

1955 B Dooland, Fazal Mahmood, WE Hollies, JB Statham, GE Tribe.

1956 MC Cowdrey, DJ Insole, DJ McGlew, HJ Tayfield, FH Tyson.

1957 D Brookes, JW Burke, MJ Hilton, GRA Langley, PE Richardson.

1958 PJ Loader, AJW McIntyre, OG Smith, MJ Stewart, CL Walcott.

1959 HL Jackson, RE Marshall, CA Milton, JR Reid, D Shackleton.

1960 KF Barrington, DB Carr, R Illingworth, G Pullar, MJK Smith.

1961 NAT Adcock, ER Dexter, RA McLean, R Subba Row, JV Wilson.

1962 WE Alley, R Benaud, AK Davidson, WM Lawry, NC O'Neill.

1963 D Kenyon, Mushtaq Mohammad, PH Parfitt, PJ Sharpe, FJ Titmus.

1964 DB Close, CC Griffith, CC Hunte, RB Kanhai, GS Sobers.

1965 G Boycott, PJP Burge, JA Flavell, GD McKenzie, RB Simpson.

1966 KC Bland, JH Edrich, RC Motz, PM Pollock, RG Pollock.

1967 RW Barber, BL D'Oliveira, C Milburn, JT Murray, SM Nurse.

1968 Asif Iqbal, Hanif Mohammad, K Higgs, JM Parks, MAK Pataudi.

1969 JG Binks, DM Green, BA Richards, DL Underwood, OS Wheatley.

1970 BF Butcher, APE Knott, Majid Khan, MJ Procter, DJ Shepherd.

1971 JD Bond, CH Lloyd, BW Luckhurst, GM Turner, RT Virgin.

1972 GG Arnold, BS Chandrasekhar, LR Gibbs, B Taylor, Zaheer Abbas.

1973 GS Chappell, DK Lillee, RAL Massie, JA Snow, KR Stackpole.

1974 KD Boyce, BE Congdon, KWR Fletcher, RC Fredericks, PJ Sainsbury.

1975 DL Amiss, MH Denness, N Gifford, AW Greig, AME Roberts.

1976 IM Chappell, PG Lee, RB McCosker, DS Steele, RA Woolmer.

1977 JM Brearley, CG Greenidge, MA Holding, IVA Richards, RW Taylor.

1978 IT Botham, M Hendrick, A Jones, KS McEwan, RGD Willis.

1979 DI Gower, JK Lever, CM Old, CT Radley, JN Shepherd.

1980 J Garner, SM Gavaskar, GA Gooch, DW Randall, BC Rose.

1981 KJ Hughes, RD Jackman, AJ Lamb, CEB Rice, VAP van der Bijl.

1982 TM Alderman, AR Border, RJ Hadlee, Javed Miandad, RW Marsh.

1983 Imran Khan, TE Jesty, AI Kallicharran, N Kapil Dev, MD Marshall.

1984 M Amarnath, JV Coney, JE Emburey, MW Gatting, CL Smith.

1985 MD Crowe, HA Gomes, GW Humpage, J Simmons, S Wettimuny.

1986 P Bainbridge, RM Ellison, CJ McDermott, NV Radford, RT Robinson.

1987 JH Childs, GA Hick, DB Vengsarkar, CA Walsh, JJ Whitaker.

1988 JP Agnew, NA Foster, DP Hughes, PM Roebuck, Saleem Malik.

1989 KJ Barnett, PJL Dujon, Phil Neale, Franklyn Stephenson, SR Waugh.

1990 SJ Cook, DM Jones, RC Russell, RA Smith, MA Taylor.

1991 MA Atherton, M Azharuddin, AR Butcher, DL Haynes, ME Waugh.

1992 CEL Ambrose, PAJ DeFreitas, AA Donald, RB Richardson, Waqar Younis.

1993 NE Briers, MD Moxon, IDK Salisbury, AJ Stewart, Wasim Akram.

1994 DC Boon, IA Healy, MG Hughes, SK Warne, SL Watkin.

1995 BC Lara, DE Malcolm, TA Munton, SJ Rhodes, KC Wessels.

1996 DG Cork, PA de Silva, ARC Fraser, A Kumble, DA Reeve.

1997 ST Jayasuriya, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar, PV Simmons, SR Tendulkar.

1998 MTG Elliott, SG Law, GD McGrath, MP Maynard, GP Thorpe.

1999 ID Austin, D Gough, M Muralitharan, A Ranatunga, JN Rhodes.

2000 CL Cairns, R Dravid, L Klusener, TM Moody, Saqlain Mushtaq.

2001 MW Alleyne, MP Bicknell, AR Caddick, JL Langer, DS Lehmann.

2002 A Flower, AC Gilchrist, JN Gillespie, VVS Laxman, DR Martyn.

2003 ML Hayden, AJ Hollioake, N Hussain, SM Pollock, MP Vaughan.

2004 CJ Adams, A Flintoff, IJ Harvey, G Kirsten, GC Smith.

2005 AF Giles, SJ Harmison, RWT Key, AJ Strauss, ME Trescothick.

2006 B Lee, KP Pietersen, RT Ponting, SP Jones, MJ Hoggard.

2007 PD Collingwood, MS Panesar, Mohammad Yousuf, DPMD Jayawardene, MR Ramprakash.

2008 IR Bell, S Chanderpaul, OD Gibson, RJ Sidebottom, Zaheer Khan.

2009 JM Anderson, DM Benkenstein, MV Boucher, ND McKenzie, SC Taylor.

2010 SCJ Broad, MJ Clarke, G Onions, MJ Prior, GP Swann.

2011 Tamim Iqbal, EJG Morgan, CMW Read, IJL Trott.

2012 TT Bresnan, G Chapple, AN Cook, A Richardson, KC Sangakkara.

2013 HM Amla, NRD Compton, JH Kallis, MN Samuels, DW Steyn.

2014 S Dhawan, CM Edwards, RJ Harris, CJL Rogers, JE Root.

2015 MM Ali, GS Ballance, A Lyth, AD Mathews, JS Patel.

2016 JM Bairstow, BB McCullum, SPD Smith, BA Stokes, KS Williamson.

2017 BM Duckett, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, TS Roland-Jones, CR Woakes.

2018 Shai Hope, Heather Knight, Jamie Porter, Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole.

2019 Tammy Beaumont, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Virat Kohli.

2020 Pat Cummins, Ellyse Perry, Jofra Archer, Simon Harmer, Marnus Labuschagne.

2021 Zak Crawley, Jason Holder, Mohammad Rizwan, Dominic Sibley, Darren Stevens.

2022 Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Devon Conway, Ollie Robinson, Dane van Niekerk.

2023 Tom Blundell, Ben Foakes, Harmanpreet Kaur, Daryl Mitchell, Matthew Potts.

2024 Mitchell Starc, Usman Khawaja, Ashleigh Gardner, Harry Brook, Mark Wood.

2025 Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith, Daniel Worrall, Liam Dawson, Sophie Ecclestone.