England cricket trio Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Sophie Ecclestone have been named among Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year, the prestigious annual prize awarded to top performers in the English summer.
County stars Liam Dawson and Dan Worrall complete the five-strong list, an honour bestowed in the almanack since 1889 and which cricketers can only win once in their career.
Ecclestone was a standout performer of a difficult year for England’s women, with the left-arm spinner cementing her place at the top of the ODI and T20I bowling rankings.
Meanwhile, Surrey pair Smith and Atkinson were the finds of 2024 for England’s men, with each taking to Test cricket with ease after making debuts against the West Indies.
Seam bowler Atkinson took 12 wickets on his first cap as he helped England’s attack sustain itself after the retirement of James Anderson, with the 27-year-old going on to take 52 Test scalps in his first year in international whites.
He also made a memorable century against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, becoming only the sixth player to have taken five wickets in an innings, 10 wickets in a match, and scored a century at the ground and ended up on all three honours boards.
County colleague Smith also adapted quickly to international cricket, having been preferred as England’s wicketkeeper to Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow, making his first Test hundred against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford in August.
Worrall, meanwhile, joined the pair in helping to underpin Surrey’s third consecutive County Championship crown with relentless new-ball incision. The former Australia international is close to England eligibility.
Dawson closes the quintet after another excellent season for Hampshire that saw the left-arm spinner again establish himself as one of English cricket’s finest all-rounders.
Wisden editor Lawrence Booth crowned Indian duo Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana as the leading cricketers in the world, the latter succeeding England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt to claim the women’s award. West Indies batter Nicholas Pooran was named as the game’s leading T20 cricketer.
As well as handing out garlands, the prestigious almanack, which is published on Thursday, is seen as a vessel for holding the game’s decision makers to account, and Booth takes a strident tone in the prestigious editor’s notes.
He is scathing about Jay Shah’s smooth transition from the most powerful figure in Indian cricket to chair of the International Cricket Council.
“(It is) a sorry truth: 2024 was the year cricket gave up any claim to being properly administered, with checks, balances, and governance for the many, not the few,” Booth writes.
“Cricket has handed over the only key not already in India’s possession. England and Australia, the only other countries with a hint of clout, acquiesced with barely a squeak. Shah’s coronation – uncontested, naturally – was in no small part a consequence of their refusal to hold India to account.”
Additional reporting by PA
