Apr 13, 2006 12:08 PM
7941 Views
(Updated Apr 13, 2006 12:14 PM)
Wisden is a publisher of Cricketers' Almanack which is known also as Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.It was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden and its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day. Wisden is traditionally naming the top five players in the last English season in their book. Now they are involved in some other ratings also.
Though Wisden is considered as “The Bible of Cricket” in recent years it has been involved in some controversy. I have seen number of controversies in last few years and I like to list many of them here…
Selection Criteria
Usually Wisden, selects one county star alongside the four other international players who plays good in England so normally the five are inclusive of few tourists, one or two English player and a county star. Plus no cricketer can win it twice. But for a change in 2001, there is no English man in the list that time. It was all non English players - Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie plus India's VVS Laxman and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower. English people made roar on that as they were not able accept this fact. Contrary to that in 2005, there were all English players – check the list five Robert Key , Ashley Giles, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, and Steve Harmison. I can agree upon for Steve Harmison. The funniest inclusion is Robert Key. Is he still playing? If yes, at which level – club or county?
Top 100 Innings
In July 2001, India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar does not figure in Wisden’s list of 100 best knocks! Wisden said that “The best work of Tendulkar has not come yet even after 120+ Tests, he is yet to play that defining innings that has won a game for the country, Wisden claims that Sachin has to perform better to be included in the list..'' Wisden rated Anil Kumble's historic 10/74 against Pakistan as the second best all-time bowling performance. VVS Laxman's innings of 281 against Australia in the Kolkata test was adjudged the 5th best all-time Test score. Just to remind Wisden about some of the greatest test innings of Sachin -
Against England - 119 in 1990 (youngest test century in England)
Against Aus – 114* in 1991-92 (facing great fast bowlers on fiery pitch of WACA)
Against SA – 169 in 1996-97 (India was down under and Sachin came up with his best)
Against Australia - 155* in 1997-98 (someone torn apart Warne first time in his career)
Against Pakistan - 136 in 1998-99 (score runs batting 4th on last day)
Thus Wisden is proved as one of the worst judges of cricket in the world despite its inflated reputation.
Top 10 batsman and bowler (all time)
In Dec 2002, Wisden has come up with another list – best bowlers & batsman of all time.Here Sachin was included and he was on 2nd spot after Bradman. I feel they tried to compensate for their earlier mistake. They can’t afford to loose big Indian market by humiliating Sachin for more than once. But this list was prepared purely on Statistics. And as Sidhu says, ''statistics are like a mini-skirt. They hide more than what they reveal''. With all due respect to the names given there I disagree with following -
No 5. Alan Border (Aus) – he shall not be in top 20,
No 7. Ken Barrington (Eng) – he shall not be in top 20,
No 8. Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) – he shall be in top 5,
No 10. Brian Lara (WIs) – he shall be in top 5.
And for bowling
No 9. Imran Khan (Pakistan) & 10. Courtney Walsh (WIs). – they shall not be in top 15
Top 40 for year 2004
Wisden has again come up with new controversy - Forty features, where 40 leading cricketers of the world are listed on the basis of their performance in the previous calendar year i.e. 2004. There were five other Indian players in the list, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. No Sachin Tendulkar again.Lets check performance of Sachin in 2004, in 10 Test matches he has scored 915 runs with average of 91.50 including 2 double centuries against Australia and Bangladesh each. In 21 one day matches he played he had scored 812 runs at average of 40.60 with 141 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi. And all these performances are not enough for Wisden. I sometime feel that Wisden is doing these things purposefully to disgrace Indian batting master blaster.
Wisden has also done only onething nice and i.e. Kapil Dev was declared the ‘Indian Cricketer of the Century’ ahead of 15 othersincluding Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. Justice has finally happened after he had been dragged into match fixing controversy.
