The Wisden Forty
Lawrence Booth and Rob Smyth
The Wisden Forty, including the Leading Cricketer in the World, have been selected by Wisden as the top 40 cricketers in the game on the basis of their class and form shown in all cricket during the calendar year 2007. The selections were made in consultation with many of the world's most experienced cricket writers and commentators. In the end, though, they were Wisden's choices, guided by the statistics but not governed by them. The selection panel are no more infallible than any other selectors.
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Ian Bell England
Graduation from promising youngster to top-order linchpin represented a
new dawn, but it did not stop the critics from wondering, at times with
exasperation, whether there was more to come. It was a reasonable nit-pick,
highlighted by innings of 83 and 74 at Kandy: beautiful, but all too fleeting
and, ultimately, part of a losing effort. His six Test hundreds have all come
in England innings where there has been another century-maker. The
definitive match-winning or match-saving innings would have to wait. Yet
the class could not be denied and the most telling breakthrough came in the
one-day game, where he relaxed sufficiently to take a maiden hundred off
India at the Rose Bowl. No one scored more one-day runs for England, a
statistic that made Warwickshire's decision to leave him out of their Friends
Provident Trophy semi-final all the more baffling. In Test cricket, a record
of one century and seven fifties told its own tale: fulfilment remained
tantalisingly round the corner. But his fielding moved into the realms of
world-class, except in the slips, and - promoted to No. 3 for the Tests in
Sri Lanka - his batting, especially against the spinners, was not far behind.
2007: 11 Tests: 777 runs @ 40.89.
33 ODI: 1,080 runs @ 33.75.
1 T20I: 22 runs @ 22.00.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul West Indies
For much of the year, it looked as if Chanderpaul's one-man show in the
middle order would be lost amid another morass of West Indian mediocrity.
Then, in the Boxing Day Test at Port Elizabeth, he finally combined personal
and team glory: his innings of 104 equalled the Test record of seven
consecutive scores of 50 or more, and inspired West Indies to their first
away win (excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) since June 2000. It was
no less than he deserved, not least because writers had given up comparing
him to anything other than a crab or a limpet. His performances in England
had gone beyond the call of duty: an unbeaten 116 in 100 overs on an Old
Trafford turner which Michael Vaughan described as the best innings of its
kind he had seen, followed by 136 not out and 70 at Chester-le-Street, where
none of his team-mates managed more than 52. The absence of the retired
Lara added further lustre to his efforts. His one-day batting, either as a
reborn opener or a middle-order rock, took the definition of utility player
to a new extreme.
2007: 4 Tests: 558 runs @ 111.60; no wicket for 43.
20 ODI: 912 runs @ 76.00.
4 T20I: 97 runs @ 32.33.
Stuart Clark Australia
The mature student of world cricket enjoyed such an outstanding freshman's
year that there was only one significant caveat: how would he cope without McGrath? A modest series against Sri Lanka suggested there might be some
temperamental deficiency when batsmen went after him, a view supported
by the irregularity of his appearances in the one-day side. But a simply
awesome display of seam bowling against India at Melbourne (30-13- 48-5
in the match) accentuated his qualities once again. By the end of the year
he was, according to the ICC's official rankings, the best seam bowler
in the world - as he kept on learning to do more with the ball than just
seam it.
2007: 4 Tests: 56 runs @ 28.00; 17 wickets @ 23.23.
10 ODI: 17 runs without being dismissed; 14 wickets @ 26.14.
7 T20I: 12 wickets @ 14.75.
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Michael Clarke Australia
The nickname "Pup" no longer seemed appropriate. By December he was
leader of the pack, albeit briefly, and captaining Australia in a Twenty20
game against New Zealand. If his carpe diem tattoo suggested an eagerness
that had once threatened to overwhelm him, he now channelled his desire
with more maturity. Australia's prolific top order left him with limited
chances to shine at the World Cup, but he still averaged 87, and his unbeaten
145 in the first Test innings of the Australian summer against Sri Lanka at
Brisbane showed the Latin to be more than just words. The impression that
here was a cricketer with the golden touch was confirmed in the first few
days of 2008, when he took three wickets in an over with his left-arm spin
to condemn India to a late, late defeat at Sydney.
2007: 4 Tests: 320 runs @ 80.00; no wicket for 10.
31 ODI: 981 runs @ 46.71; 9 wickets @ 36.77.
8 T20I: 66 runs @ 16.50; 3 wickets @ 28.66.
Alastair Cook England
A year of pluses and minuses ended comfortably in the credit column thanks
to a steadfast innings of 118 at Galle, England's sole century in Sri Lanka
and one which left Cook in exalted
company: only Bradman, Javed Miandad
and Tendulkar had previously scored
seven Test hundreds before their 23rd
birthday. Just as important, his two firstover
dismissals in the First Test at Kandy
could now be placed in the drawer
marked "experience". The fact that only
Pietersen scored more Test runs for
England in 2007 was fitting reward for
his natural diligence: after the Ashes tour
he worked on covering his off stump, but
fell across his crease and was pinned lbw
by India's bowlers and Vaas. By the end
of the series in Sri Lanka, however, he
was more balanced and resembling the assured run-getter who had made
hay against West Indies in the first part of the summer. His one-day cricket was less convincing, with several disappointments between an apparent
breakthrough hundred against India at the Rose Bowl and a mature 80 in
Colombo. Question marks remained, too, over his fielding, where he
improved all-round without excelling in one position. Overall there was only
one sensible conclusion: here was an England opener for the next few years
and beyond, as well as a future captain.
2007: 11 Tests: 923 runs @ 43.95.
14 ODI: 403 runs @ 28.78.
2 T20I: 24 runs @ 12.00.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni India
It was the year in which the jock became the head boy, with outstanding
results. In his first go as India's captain, Dhoni shrewdly led a vivacious
young side to victory in the World Twenty20, where some hunches looked
inspired - notably throwing the ball to Harbhajan at the key point of the
semi-final against Australia, and not bowling him at the crunch in the final.
The Test captaincy would have to wait for now, so Dhoni contented himself
with more familiar roles in the longer game. While his glovework relied as
much on natural athleticism as technique, his batting showed signs of newfound
maturity, although he still hit more sixes in Tests than anyone. If red
ink added some colour to his averages, there was no doubting the quality
of his weightier contributions: an unbeaten 76 saved the Lord's Test, a
relatively sedate 57 at Delhi helped win a low-scoring dogfight against
Pakistan, while the 81-ball 92 that rubbed England's noses in it at The Oval
was Dhoni at his freewheeling best.
2007: 8 Tests: 468 runs @ 52.00; 14 catches, 3 stumpings.
37 ODI*: 1,103 runs @ 44.12; 31 catches, 18 stumpings.
8 T20I: 163 runs @ 32.60; 1 catch.
* Includes 174 runs @ 87.00 and 3 catches, 3 stumpings for Asia XI.
Andrew Flintoff England
A ghastly year continued Flintoff 's dramatic post-2005 fall from grace. When
he was fit he remained England's best bowler by a fair distance, but those
times were fewer and further between, and he missed ten Tests in a row
because of an ongoing ankle problem that required two further operations.
If the fragments floating round the joint were damaging enough, the debris
occasionally floating round his head did not help matters: Flintoff infamously
capsized a pedalo in St Lucia after excessive drinking 36 hours before
England's next World Cup game, an indiscretion for which he was dropped
and stripped of the vice-captaincy, and it later emerged he had turned up
drunk to training during the CB Series in Australia. His batting fell apart,
too, but the main concern was whether his stronger suit would ever be the
same again, particularly after he grimaced his way through four-over
allotments at the World Twenty20. At the turn of the year he had reportedly
given up drinking, but either way he was in the last-chance saloon.
2007: 1 Test: 96 runs @ 48.00; 1 wicket @ 56.00.
22 ODI: 387 runs @ 22.76; 36 wickets @ 22.16.
6 T20I: 70 runs @ 14.00; 5 wickets @ 29.20.
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Sourav Ganguly India
At times during his ostracism at the hands of Greg Chappell, Ganguly might
have wondered whether he would ever score another run in international
cricket. In 2007, he scored 2,346, more than anybody else in the world.
It was a story whose charm even
Ganguly's old sparring partner Steve
Waugh might have grudgingly acknowledged,
particularly the chapters during
the Pakistan series marked "Kolkata"
and "Bangalore". If an emotional
century in his own backyard at Eden
Gardens was stirring enough - not to
mention his first against major Test
opposition for four years - his 239 at
the Chinnaswamy Stadium was a maiden
Test double-hundred and the highest
score of the year. A series-clinching 91
on a dicey pitch in the second innings
was glorious icing. It also exorcised the
demons of 2005, when his role in India's defeat by Pakistan on the same
ground presaged his demise as captain. A record of 12 fifties but no hundreds
in one-day cricket was a source of frustration, but it was a barely noticeable
cloud on this most Indian of summers.
2007: 10 Tests: 1,106 runs @ 61.44; 6 wickets @ 26.16.
32 ODI*: 1,240 runs @ 44.28; 7 wickets @ 54.14.
* Includes 120 runs @ 60.00 and no wicket for 14 in 2 matches for Asia XI.
Chris Gayle West Indies
Gayle was the unforeseen captaincy success of this or any other year. The
self-styled dude of international cricket seemed an unlikely leader of men,
and when he was chosen to stand in for the injured Sarwan it might have
been some kind of absurd social experiment. Yet his calm, congenial brand
of captaincy had an immediate impact on an often exasperating group of
players: he inspired West Indies to a one-day series win in England and
then, in South Africa, their first Test victory away to significant opposition
since 2000. Under him, ill-disciplined cricketers became disciplined. In
between, and back in the ranks, he cleaved the first international Twenty20
century, an effortlessly violent 117 from 57 balls against South Africa at
Johannesburg. That, and a slapstick contretemps with Pietersen in the Lord's
Test, proved that Gayle remained one of cricket's premier entertainers.
2007: 5 Tests: 315 runs @ 35.00; 6 wickets @ 47.50.
21 ODI: 611 runs @ 35.94; 13 wickets @ 38.07.
4 T20I: 183 runs @ 45.75; no wicket for 31.
Adam Gilchrist Australia
A last year before announcing his international retirement meant one thing
to Gilchrist: an opportunity to break new records. He settled for three big ones. Gilchrist became the first man to hit 100 Test sixes, overtook Healy's
record of 395 dismissals for Australia in Tests, and blasted the highest score
in a World Cup final. That remarkable 149, made from 104 balls and with
a squash ball inside his glove to modify his grip, redeemed a personally
underwhelming tournament and did not deserve to be overshadowed by the
subsequent farce. It was Gilchrist's sole century of the year, but he still
averaged over 60 in Tests and scored his one-day runs at his obligatory
strike-rate of over 100. The glovework was sometimes less impressive, and
a sloppy performance against India at the start of 2008 might have helped
him reach his decision to retire from the game at the end of the CB Series
- but not before he had broken a fourth record and become the most prolific
keeper in Test history with 416 dismissals.
2007: 4 Tests: 187 runs @ 62.33; 26 catches, 1 stumping.
30 ODI: 934 runs @ 34.59; 41 catches, 7 stumpings.
9 T20I: 230 runs @ 28.75; 16 catches.
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Paul Harris South Africa
Pieces of the puzzle are rarely this sizeable. South Africa had hunted high
and low for a decent spinner for nearly 20 years, but Harris, born in
Zimbabwe and starting his international
career late at the age of 28, did more
than enough to make observers wonder
what was the Afrikaans for "Eureka!"
He contributed unobtrusively to the
home victory over Pakistan, but it was
in the return series that he really made
his name, gathering 12 wickets at an
average of 20.66 in two matches as
South Africa won a major Test and series
on the subcontinent for the first time in
seven years. Harris's height provided
the spinner's incalculable weapon of
bounce, which his left-arm predecessor
Boje did not possess, but his most
striking achievement was to combine flight with thrift: his economy-rate of
2.32 was the best of those to bowl 100 overs in Tests in 2007.
2007: 9 Tests: 86 runs @ 7.16; 29 wickets @ 23.86.
Matthew Hayden Australia
At the age of 36, Hayden batted like a man possessed. If his Test figures
were massaged by an almost inevitable century against India on Boxing Day,
his sixth in his last seven Tests at Melbourne, then his one-day form was
quite simply out of this world. He scored more runs than anyone in both
50- and 20-over internationals, was leading run-scorer at the World Cup and
the World Twenty20, hit the most sixes (35) in one-day internationals, and
went 20 one-day innings without a single-figure score: not bad for a man
who could barely make the side in 2006. It was hardly his fault that his unbeaten 181 against New Zealand at Hamilton, an Australian limited-overs
record, could not inspire his side to victory. If it wasn't already burnt into
opening bowlers' psyches, the sight of Hayden advancing down the track to
pull a quick bowler off the front foot was a recurring nightmare. In fact, it
was probably as intimidating a tactic as any opening batsman has ever
employed: a stroll past 8,000 Test runs - the fifth Australian to reach the
landmark - seemed prosaic by comparison.
2007: 4 Tests: 320 runs @ 53.33.
32 ODI: 1,601 runs @ 59.29.
8 T20I: 302 runs @ 60.40.
Mike Hussey Australia
Successive Test hundreds late in the year against Sri Lanka, including a
masterclass against Muralitharan, were an opportune reminder that Hussey's
great strengths - enthusiasm, attention to detail and an apparently relentless
desire for runs - remained intact following a strangely quiet World Cup.
Since that came not long after Hussey had presided as stand-in captain over
Australia's 0-3 humbling by New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy,
the rest of the world basked briefly in the realisation that he was human
after all. And yet he still ended the year with averages of 80 in Tests -
second only to Bradman - and 57 in one-day internationals, where his strikerate
was a heady 90: the kind of stats to take the breath away. If the year
as a whole felt slightly below par, it was only because the standards he had
previously set himself were so astronomical. In reality, he was still on course
for one of the great international careers.
2007: 4 Tests: 374 runs @ 74.80.
27 ODI: 447 runs @ 31.92; no wicket for 12.
8 T20I: 105 runs @ 21.00.
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Phil Jaques Australia
The second coming was worth the wait. Two Test caps in 2005-06 had been
won only because of injury to Langer. Now, with Langer retired, Jaques
blossomed into a more-than-competent replacement, passing 50 in all five
Test innings and outscoring Hayden in four. He was determined not to waste
his opportunity. In his first innings back, against Sri Lanka at Brisbane, he
did not get off the mark until his 34th delivery; in the next, at Hobart, he
managed just a single off his first 20 balls. The early circumspection proved
well founded, and the left-hander's array of midwicket thumps and off-side
scythes marked him out as keen to make up for lost time. If there was a
criticism, it was that milestones seemed to disturb his concentration - his
scores were 100, 150, 68, 66 and 51 - and he was stumped twice. If there
was a doubt, it stemmed from his fielding: very few of the best modern
batsmen have been so ordinary. For the moment though, after Langer's
retirement had offered opposition new-ball bowlers a foot in the door, Jaques
slammed it shut with relish.
2007: 3 Tests: 435 runs @ 87.00.
2 ODI: 4 runs @ 2.00.
Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka
Was there a more elegant run-maker in world cricket? In a golden year,
Jayawardene made five Test centuries in eight first-innings trips to the crease,
culminating in scores of 195 and 213 not out against England. It was typical
of his understated ruthlessness that he should make immediate amends for
getting out five runs short of a double-hundred in Colombo by completing
the job at Galle. Less typical was a new-found edge to his public pronouncements,
especially when criticising England's approach in the Test series:
Arjuna Ranatunga, a predecessor as Sri Lanka captain, presumably approved.
But perhaps his defining act was to hit an undefeated 115 off 109 balls in
the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, an innings full of glittering
footwork and picture-postcard aesthetics that was bettered in the competition
only by Gilchrist's assault in the final. All the while he took slip catches
for granted, set intelligent fields and led with an easy authority. He was, in
short, a genuine source of Sri Lankan pride.
2007: 8 Tests: 982 runs @ 98.20; no wicket for 4.
32 ODI*: 1,089 runs @ 37.55; no wicket for 19.
5 T20I: 159 runs @ 39.75.
* Includes 217 runs @ 72.33 and no wicket for 19 in 3 matches for Asia XI.
Mitchell Johnson Australia
For the man previously described by Dennis Lillee as a "once-in-a-generation
bowler" came a once-in-a-lifetime burden. Yet while the task of being the
neophyte in a post-McGrath/Warne world might have numbed lesser men,
Johnson made an assured start to his
Test career. He combined the left-arm
angle that Australians had craved
since the days of Bruce Reid with a
natural control that facilitated match
figures of three for 46 from 28
overs in a spectacular asphyxiation
of India's batsmen at Melbourne. At
140kph and more, he swung the
new ball into right-handers from over
the wicket and reversed the old
ball away from round. His one-day
form was mixed: a fearful pasting
in New Zealand in February meant
he watched the World Cup from the
bench, but he was back in India later in the year and helped Australia clinch
the series with a majestic spell of five for 26 at Vadodara.
2007: 3 Tests: 15 runs without being dismissed; 11 wickets @ 26.09.
15 ODI: 35 runs @ 17.50; 26 wickets @ 24.00.
7 T20I: 14 runs @ 14.00; 10 wickets @ 17.20.
Anil Kumble India
Even after 17 years savouring the myriad sights of international cricket, there
was new beauty for Kumble to behold. Nobody took more Test wickets, and
a maiden Test century at The Oval carried both rich novelty and immense
significance, as it rubber-stamped India's first series victory in England for
21 years. Then, after giving up one-dayers and Dravid's resignation, came
his first stab at captaincy. Ducks rarely take to water so well: Kumble led
India to their first home series win against Pakistan since 1979-80, taking
seven wickets in the critical Delhi victory, and hardened their collective nose
to such an extent that they held their own in Australia after the turn of the
year. Most honourably, he combined the ideals of playing very hard and
playing fair. While Kumble was around, the spirit of cricket, and the Indian
team, were in safe hands.
2007: 10 Tests: 232 runs @ 25.77; 49 wickets @ 29.40.
4 ODI: 5 runs @ 5.00; 6 wickets @ 31.83.
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VVS Laxman India
Batting at No. 6 in a side bursting with talent at times limited Laxman's
chances, but somehow he still managed to turn heads, transforming the cameo
into an art form in England before cashing in on a flat one at Kolkata to
take an unbeaten century off Pakistan. A sequence of 241 runs without being
dismissed - the Pakistanis took his wicket once in five innings - hinted at
a steel some believed was confined merely to his wrists, and by the time the
Test series in Australia in early 2008 was threatening to descend into all-out
war, Laxman was quietly outperforming his more names-in-lights colleagues.
India's faith in him, not always a given, especially where the one-day side
has been concerned, was illustrated by his promotion to No. 3 at Melbourne
after Dravid moved up to open, and there remained few sights as beguiling
as his flick from outside off stump through midwicket.
2007: 8 Tests: 496 runs @ 55.11; 1 wicket @ 7.00.
Brett Lee Australia
Having spent years playing the role of temperamental younger brother in
Australia's pace attack, Lee came over all paternal in the wake of the
retirement of McGrath and the seemingly terminal decline of Gillespie. He
revelled in his new status, occasionally even swapping pace for accuracy to
take four wickets in every innings of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka,
plus six more in the win over India at Melbourne. His victims - a pickand-
mix of openers, middle-order batsmen and tailenders - did little to
detract from the suspicion that he had entered the most mature phase of
his career, although it was easy to forget that he had already taken more
than 250 Test wickets. An ankle injury ruled him out of the World Cup, but
his 30-year-old body appreciated the break; at times he bowled like a man
several years younger, now with the ability to swing the ball, a skill that
must have owed something to Australia's bowling coach Troy Cooley.
2007: 4 Tests: 16 runs @ 8.00; 28 wickets @ 17.28.
17 ODI: 56 runs @ 14.00; 25 wickets @ 26.76.
8 T20I: 17 runs @ 8.50; 10 wickets @ 22.30.
Glenn McGrath Australia
Did you expect him to go quietly? McGrath's final lap of international cricket
was an absolute triumph, even if by now he was restricted to bowling below
top gear. No matter: his combination of mouth, metronomy and mental
strength was far too good for most batsmen. McGrath was the top wickettaker
in the World Cup and, despite playing for only four months, took as
many one-day wickets as anybody except Vettori and Zaheer. He showed an
almost sadistic pleasure in getting the better of foes new and old. Pietersen,
who had boasted about his contemptuous tactic of walking down the track
to McGrath, had his rib cracked by a surprise bouncer; and in the World
Cup semi-final McGrath picked South Africa apart with a devastating spell
of 8-1-18-3. There was also the small matter of six wickets in his final
Test, which helped precipitate the Ashes whitewash he had craved, including
one with his last delivery on his home ground, the SCG, and a final scalp
in the gloaming at the end of the World Cup final. As he prepared for a last
payday in the Indian Premier League, it was impossible not to be in awe of
one of the game's true champions.
2007: 1 Test: no runs without being dismissed; 6 wickets @ 17.50.
20 ODI: 6 runs @ 3.00; 39 wickets @ 18.92.
Misbah-ul-Haq Pakistan
It was better late than never. At 33, and after four failed stabs at international
cricket, Misbah seemed to have missed the boat, but the retirement of
Inzamam gave him an opportunity that he took emphatically: the last four
months of 2007 brought over 1,000 international runs. Misbah averaged 116
in India, where he turned a maiden Test
century into an epic, unbeaten 161 on
a Kolkata shirtfront, before following
up with 133 not out at Bangalore. If
Misbah was one-paced in Tests, with a
distinctly 20th-century strike-rate of 42,
he had no problem adapting to more
modern forms of the game. He was one
of the stars of the World Twenty20:
an electric unbeaten 66 took care of
Australia, and he led Pakistan to the
verge of victory over India in the final
in a blaze of sixes before scooping feebly
to short fine leg in the final over. That
was one of a disconcerting portfolio of
slightly farcical dismissals - the most notorious came when he was run
out in the Delhi Test after leaping to avoid Karthik's throw - but, given
the volume of runs that invariably preceded the brainmelt, it was hard to be
too critical.
2007: 5 Tests: 551 runs @ 78.71.
10 ODI: 272 runs @ 30.22.
9 T20I: 251 runs @ 50.20
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Mohammad Asif Pakistan
The grumbles over his controversial acquittal after testing positive for
nandrolone in 2006 rumbled on when he was omitted from Pakistan's World
Cup squad, ostensibly because of an elbow injury. But there was no doubting
the easy class he continued to bring to the new-ball attack - and the amount
he moved any ball, new or old. Second-innings figures of 38-16-76-5 in
the win at Port Elizabeth added stamina to his many qualities; the way he
reduced India to 36 for four by himself in the World Twenty20 game at
Durban was a tour de force. His growing stature in the dressing-room had
already earned him the vice-captaincy for a one-day tournament in Abu
Dhabi, but by the end of the year that right elbow was playing up again.
Asif missed the tour of India, and keyhole surgery was required - the kind
of precise surgical procedure to which batsmen facing him had grown all
too accustomed.
2007: 5 Tests: 42 runs @ 8.40; 21 wickets @ 25.95.
12 ODI*: 15 runs @ 3.75; 12 wickets @ 47.16.
8 T20I: 4 runs without being dismissed; 10 wickets @ 24.80.
* Includes 5 wickets @ 40.20 in 3 matches for Asia XI.
Mohammad Yousuf Pakistan
If his one-day figures went up a notch, the overall impression was one of
distraction. The record-breaking performances of 2006 gave way to an
untypical lack of ruthlessness: he reached 18 without passing 32 in seven
of his nine completed Test innings, and it needed a few not-outs to put a
respectable sheen on his average. Matters were not helped when he was
omitted from Pakistan's World Twenty20 squad on the grounds of age, and
many interpreted his subsequent decision to sign for the rebel Indian Cricket
League as a form of retaliation. The Pakistan Cricket Board persuaded him
back into the official fold, but when Yousuf overreacted to a rare piece of
sledging from Anil Kumble during the Bangalore Test, it was hard to escape
the conclusion that not all was right with a player who the previous year
had rubbed shoulders with perfection.
2007: 6 Tests: 368 runs @ 40.88.
24 ODI*: 1,042 runs @ 52.10; 1 wicket for 0.
* Includes 119 runs @ 39.66 in 3 matches for Asia XI.
Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka
It was the year Muralitharan took sole charge of a world record many felt
he would never relinquish. There was no denying the theatricality of the
moment he bowled Collingwood at Kandy to pass Warne's tally of 708 Test
wickets, nor the overwhelming nature of yet another statistical smorgasbord.
But a less emotional reading of his performance discerned a Test year
divided into thirds: all too easy superiority over Bangladesh (26 wickets
at 10.84); a series-winning, but increasingly tired, performance against
England (19 at 21.63); and, in between, the resurfacing of an old Achilles
heel against Australia (four at exactly 100). Warne's supporters needed little encouragement to use his series haul in evidence as the debate raged about
who was the better bowler; Murali's shrugged, and looked forward to an
unprecedented march to 1,000.
2007: 8 Tests: 27 runs @ 9.00; 49 wickets @ 22.30.
13 ODI: 11 runs @ 5.50; 26 wickets @ 14.46
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Makhaya Ntini South Africa
It was a cruel twist of fate that, just as the emergence of Steyn offered to
ease the appreciable burden carried by Ntini for so long, its weight should
begin to tell. Ntini remained a voracious hustler of batsmen, but the body
could not always match the spirit and, as he reached the fast bowler's
watershed age of 30, a marginal loss of nip threatened to prove terminal.
He still took more Test wickets than any fast bowler except Steyn and Zaheer,
but more than half of those came during an exceptional series against
Pakistan early in the year, when he grabbed 19 in three Tests - including
his 300th - at an average of 18.68. A dreadful World Cup followed, with
Ntini dropped after taking only six wickets in seven games. His form
improved by the end of the year, but in the Test victories over Pakistan, New
Zealand and West Indies it was abundantly clear that Steyn had usurped his
status as Graeme Smith's strike bowler.
2007: 9 Tests: 24 runs @ 4.80; 35 wickets @ 28.28.
25 ODI: 37 runs @ 6.16; 32 wickets @ 31.96.
5 T20I: 4 runs without being dismissed; 2 wickets @ 62.50.
Monty Panesar England
Quantitatively, it was a significant success: Panesar was England's top
wicket-taker by some distance and improved his bowling average marginally
from his first year. Qualitatively, it was a significant trial. Almost all of
Panesar's best moments came against a clueless West Indies side, for whom
he had far too much bounce and savvy: there were 23 wickets in four Tests,
including his first ten-for, on an Old Trafford turner. If the opposition was
weak, and the umpires remarkably willing to give batsmen lbw on the front
foot, Panesar did at least deserve huge credit for carrying the attack at a
time when almost all of England's seam bowlers were either going down
injured or spraying it down leg. But then reality's incisors - and the
subcontinent's wristiest batsmen - got to work. In consecutive series against
India and Sri Lanka, Panesar's average was the wrong side of 50, and by
the end of the year he looked unusually grouchy and a little lost. His two
chief weapons, accuracy and zest for the game, were not working, and he
had few answers. He also failed to have the expected impact in one-day
cricket, mainly due to an apparently pre-programmed tendency to bowl too
defensively. But if his one-day future was insecure - he was left out of the
series in New Zealand early in 2008 - nobody seriously doubted that he
would come again in Test cricket.
2007: 11 Tests: 42 runs @ 4.20; 41 wickets @ 32.39.
26 ODI: 26 runs @ 5.20; 24 wickets @ 40.83.
1 T20I: 1 run @ 1.00; 2 wickets @ 20.00.
Kevin Pietersen England
Pietersen was still England's one batsman of genuine world class: the wicket
designed to send the opposition into raptures. Critics lingered on the public
pronouncements about fatigue, and cited his performances in Sri Lanka -
no half-century in a Test series for the first time - as evidence that he needed
a break. But there was bad luck amid the occasionally gung-ho shot-selection,
and - almost as an afterthought - he ended up equalling Herbert Sutcliffe's
England record of reaching 3,000 runs in 33 Tests. That dichotomy was
typical Pietersen: the truth was he remained a notch above his team-mates.
He was one of the few bright sparks to emerge from another gloomy World
Cup, and his 226 against West Indies at Headingley was England's highest
Test score since Gooch's 333 in 1990. A century against India at Lord's was
one of his best, and assumed even greater value as England's struggles
against India's swing bowlers became more apparent. More than that, an
innings full of reverse-sweeps against Zimbabwe in the World Twenty20 was
as close to arrogance as an England batsman could go without stretching
the boundaries of taste. The stodginess of Sri Lankan conditions found him
wanting, but it was only fair to judge him by the highest standards.
2007: 11 Tests: 1,007 runs @ 50.35; 1 wicket @ 129.00.
25 ODI: 889 runs @ 42.33; 1 wicket @ 15.00.
8 T20I: 224 runs @ 28.00.
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Ricky Ponting Australia
As captain, Ponting could not have asked for more: he became the second
leader to retain the World Cup (after Clive Lloyd), the first since 1920-21
to preside over an Ashes whitewash, and his side equalled the record of 16
Test victories. As a batsman, the bag was mixed: an average of 38.40 was
his lowest in Tests since 1998, and he lost his apparently permanent place
at the top of the ICC rankings to Sangakkara. In one-day cricket, however,
he was untouchable: only Hayden and Jayawardene scored more runs at the
World Cup, but the high point came late in the year, when Ponting, on one
of his vengeance missions, lashed two regal, unbeaten centuries against New
Zealand to regain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy that had been surrendered
humiliatingly in his absence earlier in the year. All seemed well with the
world at that point, but in the Boxing Day Test a week later Ponting was
out in single figures in both innings of a Test for the first time in six years.
Then, at the start of 2008, he was cast as the principal villain in the Bollyline
affair. For the surest thing in world cricket, life suddenly seemed worryingly
insecure.
2007: 4 Tests: 192 runs @ 38.40.
27 ODI: 1,424 runs @ 79.11.
6 T20I: 184 runs @ 36.80
Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka
Relieved of wicketkeeping duties in the Test arena, Sangakkara embarked
on the kind of run spree previously thought to have gone out of fashion
with the retirement of Bradman. In fact, had it not been for a poor umpiring
decision at Hobart when Sangakkara had 192, he would probably have become the first player to score double-hundreds in three successive Tests,
a feat not even Bradman achieved. That the first two, both unbeaten, had
come against Bangladesh only slightly detracted from the bouquets and
garlands. Yet on he went. Following his Hobart heroics, ended by umpire
Koertzen's misjudgment, innings of 92 and 152 against England at Kandy
turned out to be a series-winning double, and he ended the year on top of
the world rankings, having begun it in fourth. It was hardly a surprise that
his brief stint with Warwickshire left him at the top of the county's averages.
His form in one-day cricket, where he continued to keep wicket, was ordinary,
but no one was overly bothered. While Sangakkara was batting in Test cricket,
Sri Lanka looked unbeatable.
2007: 7 Tests: 968 runs @ 138.28.
26 ODI: 758 runs @ 31.58; 30 catches, 6 stumpings.
5 T20I: 104 runs @ 20.80; 2 catches, 2 stumpings.
RP Singh India
Zaheer stole the show, but he would not have been the same without his
left-hand man. Especially during the tour of England, Singh's ability to swing
the ball both ways, and late, confounded the batsmen. He also exhibited
plenty of the mongrel so integral to the identity of the new breed of Indian
fast bowler. If the statistical returns were sometimes modest, closer inspection
showed a penchant for snaring the big wickets: of his 20 Test victims, 19
were in the top seven, and he nailed Pietersen twice in the decisive victory
over England at Trent Bridge. Some splendid work at the World Twenty20
- four for 13 against South Africa and three for 26 against Pakistan in the
final - confirmed a taste for the big occasion. And when Zaheer went lame
during the Australia tour, he fearlessly took on the role of attack leader. At
22, he was a real prospect.
2007: 6 Tests: 34 runs @ 6.80; 20 wickets @ 30.45.
18 ODI: 26 runs @ 13.00; 24 wickets @ 32.83.
8 T20I: 1 run without being dismissed; 13 wickets @ 14.69.
Dale Steyn South Africa
Steyn's explosion on to the world stage was even enough to trigger talk of
an international pace-bowling revival. That might have been optimistic, but
Steyn's own figures brooked no argument: no fast bowler claimed more Test
wickets, and no bowler of any description could match his strike-rate of 29.
With Pollock fading and Ntini overworked, Steyn's ascent was a gift for
South Africa, never more than when he was blowing away New Zealand
with 20 wickets in two games. A stint at Warwickshire had already added
savvy to his rough-but-dangerous edges and there was less tendency to waste
energy growling at batsmen than in his first crack at international level. He
was now South Africa's go-to bowler, as exemplified by a spell of 3-0-9- 4
in a losing Twenty20 match against West Indies. South Africa could barely
contain their excitement at someone fast, if not tall, with outswing.
2007: 7 Tests: 82 runs @ 11.71; 44 wickets @ 17.47.
4 ODI: 8 wickets @ 22.50.
2 T20I: 1 run without being dismissed; 5 wickets @ 5.20.
Andrew Symonds Australia
Even though Australia played only four Tests in 2007, that body of work
was sufficient for Symonds to have the words "one-day specialist" removed
from his pigeon-hole. An emotional maiden century in the final Test of 2006
had blown away all the debilitating
insecurity of old, enabling him to play
the role of enforcer at No. 6 to nearperfection.
Not that this development
impinged upon Symonds's one-day
impact: extraordinarily, he fused an
accumulator's average of 62 with a
slogger's strike-rate of 104. He was
hardly needed at the World Cup, such
was Australia's supremacy, but still
managed to average 63. And when he
was really tested, in India later in the
year, he reeled off consecutive scores of
87, 89, 75 and 107 not out, shrugging
off the racist goading of a few idiots.
With the added bonus of his streetwise bowling - off-spin or medium-pace
- and often breathtaking fielding, he was a shoo-in for any world one-day
XI. But the fact that he was now a certainty for the Australian Test team
probably gave him the most pleasure of all.
2007: 4 Tests: 230 runs @ 76.66; 3 wickets @ 30.00.
26 ODI: 808 runs @ 62.15; 6 wickets @ 63.33.
9 T20I: 251 runs @ 62.75; 3 wickets @ 68.00.
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Sachin Tendulkar India
A year of plenty - only Hayden scored more one-day runs - was slightly
stained by the fact that Tendulkar scored 22 fifties and converted only three
into hundreds, particularly during a bizarre sequence in which he was
dismissed in the nineties five times on the summer tour of the UK. He fell
on three occasions for 99 in one-day cricket alone, once on the receiving
end of a laughable umpiring decision, which he took with good grace. He
batted for the team in England, seldom launching into off-side strokes and
selflessly absorbing a barrage of bouncers for the greater good: his laborious
innings of 91 and 82 in the first innings at Trent Bridge and The Oval enforced
winning positions in first the match and then the series. Emancipation - and
centuries - would come thrillingly in Australia in the new year.
2007: 9 Tests: 776 runs @ 55.42; 5 wickets @ 58.60.
33 ODI: 1,425 runs @ 47.50; 11 wickets @ 44.36.
Chaminda Vaas Sri Lanka
Vaas became only the third Sri Lankan - after Muralitharan and Jayasuriya
- to win 100 Test caps, but there was nothing elder-statesmanlike about his
all-round contribution. An unbeaten hundred against Bangladesh in Colombo
and 90 against England at Galle underlined what he had always been capable
of with the bat, but it was his left-arm swing bowling - steady, thoughtful, always probing - which continued to chip away, even if the Australians had
his measure at Brisbane. Nothing better exemplified his old-pro's control
than a 50-over economy-rate of 3.63, surpassed among regular bowlers only
by Pollock. Vaas might have been past his peak, but his dismantling of Cook
at Kandy and four for 28 against England in Galle revealed he had lost none
of his tricks.
2007: 6 Tests: 261 runs @ 65.25; 18 wickets @ 29.33.
17 ODI: 63 runs @ 10.50; 20 wickets @ 22.50.
5 T20I: 33 runs @ 33.00; 5 wickets @ 20.00.
Michael Vaughan England
Vaughan returned to Test cricket after a year and a half out injured, only to
discover that the world had moved on in his absence. Mainly backwards: he
found a new, struggling side, and though he overhauled Peter May's record
of 20 Test wins as England captain,
a more relevant statistic was that
he lost his first series at home as
captain, to India. Few of the old
certainties were there, not least an
attack that could take 20 wickets,
and in the defeat in Sri Lanka he
suffered from a tactical impotence
not seen since his first year as
captain. There was a refreshingly
retro feel to Vaughan's batting,
though: his 124 against India at
Trent Bridge was one for the ages.
Less endearing were a vaguely
absurd tendency to refer to himself
in the third person and a spat with
The Guardian, both of which
suggested he was taking himself a
little too seriously. There were perils on the horizon, not least because of
the split captaincy that he had reluctantly accepted in the aftermath of a
diabolical World Cup. But it was hard to imagine England competing for
the Ashes without him.
2007: 9 Tests: 761 runs @ 47.56; no wicket for 24.
12 ODI: 252 runs @ 21.00; 4 wickets @ 21.75.
1 T20I: 27 runs @ 27.00.
Daniel Vettori New Zealand
Vettori accepted one of the more poisoned chalices on offer - the captaincy
of an apparently declining New Zealand side, who were slaughtered by South
Africa in their only Tests of the year - but he also earned the garland for
taking more one-day wickets than anybody. This was despite a modest World
Cup, in which he claimed only seven at 46 in as many matches against Testplaying
opposition. In the World Twenty20, however, he was magnificent:
not once did he go for more than 25 in his four overs, and his spell of four for 20 to halt a rampaging India at Johannesburg was haute cuisine despite
the fast-food format.
2007: 2 Tests: 78 runs @ 39.00; 3 wickets @ 67.66.
31 ODI: 110 runs @ 9.16; 43 wickets @ 26.11.
8 T20I: 41 runs @ 6.83; 13 wickets @ 13.53.
Younis Khan Pakistan
Even in a difficult year for Pakistan cricket, elegance and output remained
in happy alignment - so much so that he even surpassed Mohammad Yousuf
as the wicket opponents craved most. Younis top-scored in five Test innings
out of 16, never more impressively than when making 126 out of 263 during
an otherwise depressing defeat by South Africa at Karachi. Match-saving
hundreds against the same opponents at Lahore and against India at Kolkata
underlined his status as one of the modern game's best No. 3s. Although
one-day cricket has not been his forte, there was an innings of 117 as
Pakistan successfully chased down India's 321 at Mohali to suggest a
growing versatility. Yorkshire fans will also recall his double of 106 and 202
not out at the Rose Bowl - the first such feat in the club's history.
2007: 8 Tests: 751 runs @ 53.64; no wicket for 34.
17 ODI: 617 runs @ 36.29; no wicket for 5.
10 T20I: 176 runs @ 19.55; 3 wickets @ 6.00.
Yuvraj Singh India
It was entirely in keeping with his penchant for the grand gesture that Yuvraj
provided international cricket with its most explosive five minutes of
the year. The six sixes he hit in
a Stuart Broad over during the
World Twenty20 were not merely
cricketing eye-candy of a very 21st century
kind, but epic retribution
for the consecutive five he had
conceded to Dimitri Mascarenhas a
fortnight earlier. And if that was not
juicy enough, his 30-ball 70 then
knocked out Australia in the semifinal.
Yuvraj's 50-over form was
scarcely less glamorous, not least
when he single-handedly gave
Australia a fright at Hyderabad. A
glittering 169 in the Bangalore Test
against Pakistan encouraged notions
of catharsis at the highest level, so
it was frustrating that his next three innings ended in single figures. For all
the clean hitting, his mediocre Test record remained a blot on the CV.
2007: 2 Tests: 176 runs @ 44.00; 2 wickets @ 10.00.
36 ODI*: 1,287 runs @ 45.96; 13 wickets @ 43.38.
7 T20I: 179 runs @ 35.80; 1 wicket @ 38.00.
* Includes 92 runs @ 46.00 and 1 wicket @ 67.00 in 3 matches for Asia XI.
Zaheer Khan India
No one claimed more international wickets in 2007 than Zaheer's 81, but
rather than a single statistic it was his contribution to India's first series win
in England for 21 years that left the
greatest impression. Swinging the
ball in and out from both around
and over the wicket, Zaheer was
unplayable at Trent Bridge, where
he successfully channelled his
indignation at the jelly-bean
incident, and was still moving it
both ways on the last day of the
series at The Oval. As Michael
Vaughan admitted: "We never really
knew what was coming next." The
BCCI did, upgrading Zaheer's
central contract so that he now
rubbed shoulders financially with
the batting stars of the Indian
dressing-room, and his new
standing was such that a heel injury ruling him out of the last three Tests
in Australia early in 2008 was considered a grievous blow to India's chances.
See also Five Cricketers of the Year, page 74.
2007: 9 Tests: 52 runs @ 6.50; 41 wickets @ 25.73.
33 ODI*: 177 runs @ 17.70; 40 wickets @ 34.90.
* Includes 6 runs without being dismissed and 2 wickets @ 26.00 in 2 matches for
Asia XI.
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