The Wisden Almanack named Ben Stokes as the leading cricketer of the year for 2019 on Wednesday (April 8).
The England mainstay played a key role in helping his country hoisting their maiden 50-over World Cup trophy last year. He compiled 465 runs in the tournament alongside picking up seven wickets. In the summit clash versus New Zealand at Lord’s, he composed a game-changing unbeaten hand of 84. Stokes followed up his World Cup heroics with a brilliant undefeated century in the Leeds Test of the Ashes that powered England to a nail-biting one-wicket victory. He also took three wickets in the second innings of that Test.
Incidentally, he is the first English cricketer to take home the award since Andrew Flintoff clinched it in 2005. “Ben Stokes pulled off the performance of a lifetime – twice in the space of a few weeks,” said Wisden’s editor, Lawrence Booth. “First, with a mixture of outrageous talent and good fortune, he rescued England’s run-chase in the World Cup final, before helping to hit 15 off the super over. Then, in the Third Ashes Test at Headingley, he produced one of the great innings, smashing an unbeaten 135 to pinch a one-wicket win.”
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“Last year, these pages urged [Stokes] to rediscover his mongrel as a matter of national urgency,” Booth added. “He did, and more: in the World Cup final and the Headingley Test, he was playing fantasy cricket. In between came an Ashes hundred at Lord’s – normally a career highlight, scarcely a tremor on the Stokesograph. When England stumbled during the World Cup, losing to Sri Lanka and Australia, he stood tall. Without him, this Almanack might have been another English hard-luck story. Instead, it’s a celebration. Stokes is their all-weather cricketer, a giant come rain or shine. The next few years should be fun.”
Meanwhile, West Indies’ big-hitting all-rounder, Andre Russell, was announced as the leading T20 player in the world. On the other hand, Australia’s experienced all-rounder Ellyse Perry bagged the leading woman player of the year. The all-rounder was also handed the award in 2016. Perry was in prime form through the course of the year, accumulating 441 at 73.5 in ODIs and 267 runs in T20Is. She also plucked 21 and 14 wickets in ODIs and T20Is respectively. In the one-off Ashes Test against England, she aggregated a century in the first innings.
“Ellyse Perry dominated the women’s Ashes like no one before her,” Booth said, “inspiring Australia to a crushing victory. She was devastating with the ball, claiming seven for 22 in the ODI at Canterbury, and remorseless with the bat, not least during the one-off Test at Taunton, where she made 116 and 76 not out.”
Perry was also named as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. Jofra Archer, Simon Harmer, Marnus Labuschange and Pat Cummins were the other four cricketers included in the list. “Jofra Archer had an unprecedented impact in his first summer as an international cricketer,” Booth said. “He showed astonishing poise to bowl the super over that delivered England the World Cup, then produced some of the quickest and most memorable spells in recent Ashes history, knocking over Steve Smith at Lord’s, and finishing the series with 22 wickets at just 20 apiece.
“Pat Cummins was a constant menace as Australia retained the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001,” noted Booth. “He was fast, hostile, accurate – and rarely without a smile. His haul of 29 wickets was the most in a series by a bowler not taking a five-for. He looked what he was: No 1 in the world. Marnus Labuschagne began his Ashes as a curio, becoming Test cricket’s first concussion substitute, and finished it as Australia’s best batsman behind Smith, having ticked off four successive half-centuries. That followed a prolific stint with Glamorgan, where he notched 1,114 Championship runs at 65. Later in the year, he averaged 112 in the Australian summer.”
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