For the second consecutive year, Ben Stokes, England’s premier all-rounder, has been named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the world.
Stokes has been chosen for the prestigious award after a year in which he averaged 58 with the bat and 19 with the ball in Test match cricket.
The 29-year-old is now the first England player to be named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the world on more than one occasion. Stokes had won the award last year as well for his exploits in the 2019 World Cup and the Ashes.
Stokes made 465 runs from his 11 innings at an average of 66.42 and strike-rate of 93.18 in helping England clinch their maiden 50-over World Cup title. Later in the summer, his couple of hundreds, especially the one at Headingley, were instrumental in England being able to draw the five-match Test series played against Australia for the Ashes.
“Ben Stokes becomes the first England player to be named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World more than once, retaining the title he claimed in 2020. He did it all against a backdrop of personal tragedy: his father, Ged, died in December at the age of 65.”
said Wisden’s editor Lawrence Booth.
Among other award recipients, 44-year-old Kent cricketer Darren Stevens has been named one of the Five Cricketers of the Year, the fourth oldest in the publication’s history, while Australian batter Beth Mooney has been awarded Leading Woman Cricketer in the world.
West Indian all-rounder Jason Holder, Pakistani wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and England’s two promising young batters Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley are also part of the list of Five Cricketers of the Year apart from Stevens. Excellence in, or influence on, the previous English summer are the major criteria for inclusion on the list and no player can be chosen more than once. West Indies captain Kieron Pollard was chosen as the Leading T20 Cricketer in the world.
Having been the Belinda Clark Medalist at the Australia Cricket Awards in February, Mooney added to her tally of major awards after being honoured by Wisden. She was the player of the tournament at the Women’s T20 World Cup played in Australia last March and also the leading run-scorer of the Women’s Big Bash League.
An inspiration of sorts for his longevity and desire to continue playing, Stevens took 29 wickets in his five matches during the Bob Willis Trophy in the UK last summer. His fantastic exploits with the new ball earned Stevens a contract extension with Kent, besides further enhancing his reputation within the county circuit. Stevens is the oldest player since 1933 to be named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.
England batters, Crawley and Sibley, were two of their bright spots from the Tests played against West Indies and Pakistan in tough circumstances. Rizwan, the Pakistan gloveman and middle-order batter, also emerged as one of his team’s more consistent performers through the English summer. Holder was described as a “giant” by Booth for his services to the game last year, as the ex-West Indies Test captain led from the front at the resumption of on-field action in the UK after the Calypso Kings agreed to tour for Test matches despite the COVID-19 threat.
Published on Thursday, this year’s Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is its 158th edition. The book has noted down many famous and infamous instances in the past, but it couldn’t have reported on more unprecedented events than it did in the year 2020. The coronavirus pandemic affected us in all aspects of life, including cricket, where only a handful of scheduled fixtures saw the light of the day.
