The wisdom in Wisden |
From Pataudi to Harmanpreet… raising a toast to the Indian writers who embellished the annual’s Five Cricketers of the Year section with their way with words and stories within stories
A collection of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks
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........