What does it mean to be among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year? Obviously, it’s a significant honour from the so-called bible of cricket, bestowed on a cricketer who made an impression in the previous English season. It also means that you get written about in the annual by a leading writer.
I’ve yet to receive my copy of this year’s edition, launched recently at Lord’s, so I’m not aware who has written articles on Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, and Mohammed Siraj — the four Indians in Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year (2025) — and Deepti Sharma, among the two Leading Cricketers in the World.
Indian writers who have scripted appreciations on Indian cricketers of the year, have been nothing short of reputed. I discovered that DJ ‘ Dicky’ Rutnagur’s work in the Almanack included pieces on MAK Pataudi (1968 edition), BS Chandrasekhar (1972), Sunil Gavaskar (1980), Dilip Vengsarkar (1987), and VVS Laxman (2002). Other Indian writers to embellish the Five Cricketers of the Year section are: R Mohan (Mohd Azharuddin in the 1991 edition), the late Pradeep Vijayakar (Zaheer Khan in 2008), Sharda Ugra (Shikhar Dhawan in 2014), Anand Vasu (Rohit Sharma in 2022), Nagraj Gollapudi (Jasprit Bumrah in 2022), and Karunya Keshav (Harmanpreet Kaur in 2023).
Dicky Rutnagur, who contributed extensively to the annual. PICS/MID-DAY ARCHIVES
Mohan wrote about how Azharuddin gave a new definition to oriental artistry during the English summer of 1990 in which the India captain scored two Test hundreds. Vijayakar quoted Zaheer Khan’s coach Vidya Paradkar as saying that the left-arm pacer used to arrive at the National CC nets, Cross Maidan at 7 am and report again at 2.30 pm each day for training. Ugra touched upon how Dhawan “played his way past the tattoos, the hairdo, and the moustache he twirls with pride,” while Gollapudi got Bumrah to tell him that his biggest strength does not lie in the skills he possesses but in his mind. And Rohit Sharma opened up to Vasu on what made him tick on the 2021 tour to England (368 runs in four Tests): “I focussed on what I would be facing from Anderson and Broad. I wanted to prepare very specifically.” Keshav underlined how Harmanpreet is the face of women’s cricket in India.
Pataudi’s was the first portrait credited to an Indian writer; pieces on CK Nayudu (1933 edition), Vijay Merchant (1937), and Vinoo Mankad (1947) had no names attached to them. Pataudi’s hundred against Brian Close’s Englishmen at Leeds was a stupendous effort. And Rutnagur did justice. “At Headingley in the first Test, last summer, he played his epic innings of 148 which lifted India out of the dark pit of despair. India lost in spite of his courageous effort, but in defeat they took away as much honour as the winners. As a Test captain, he could have reached greater stature had his tenure not coincided with a period of very lean bowling resources. This weakness and the low standard of fielding seem to frustrate him, which perhaps explains his periodic urge to call it a day,” Rutnagur wrote.
Tradition was broken for Laxman, Cricketer of the Year in the 2002 edition. The last Indian cricketer whom Rutnagur wrote about in Wisden, wasn’t picked for his performances in England but for his epic 281 against Australia at Kolkata in 2001, and Rutnagur was at the venue to watch the incredible unfold for the Sourav Ganguly-led Indian team as Laxman and Dravid went about dismantling the Australians. One expected Ganguly to be a Cricketer of the Year in the 1997 edition since he scored two hundreds in two Tests including a debut century at Lord’s, but that didn’t happen. Tendulkar earned his place in that edition for his imperious century in the opening Test of the 1996 series at Edgbaston and in the third Test at Trent Bridge. Dravid was Cricketer of the Year in the 2000 edition for his exploits in the 1999 World Cup. Ganguly too could have been considered for the same year through his World Cup performances that included 183 against defending champions Sri Lanka at Taunton. Like Ganguly, Virender Sehwag was never a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. The Wisden criteria for this honour is clear — performances on English soil. Bishan Singh Bedi is another, despite making four Test tours there. For the 2008 edition, Wisden’s then editor Scyld Berry commissioned articles on five cricketers who didn’t ever make it to the Five Cricketers of the Year section over the years. One of the five was Bedi, about whom former England captain Mike Brearley wrote: “Besides being a gentlemanly cricketer, Bedi [deceased] was also a terrific competitor. Tony Lewis, who captained England in 1972-73, said he was a Dennis Lillee among slow bowlers. If he liked you, he would be extremely friendly (I greeted him with a namaste — the Indian greeting with hands together — when I came in to bat at Lord’s, and he enjoyed that). But if he took against you, he could be a fierce antagonist.”
Bedi would have welcomed the news of five Indians (four plus Deepti Sharma) in Wisden. He loved a good read and this year’s Wisden promises to be just that for us Indians.
mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.