The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, based primarily on their “influence on the previous English season”.
- The award began in 1889 with the naming of “Six Great Bowlers of the Year”, and continued with the naming of “Nine Great Batsmen of the Year” in 1890 and “Five Great Wicket-Keepers” in 1891.
- In the 2000 edition, the editor Matthew Engel recognised that the best players in the world were typically no longer playing English domestic cricket, and opted to select the Cricketers of the Year based on their performances anywhere in the world
- From 2000 to 2003 the award was made based on players’ impact on cricket worldwide rather than just the preceding season in England,but the decision was reversed in 2004 with the introduction of a separate Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World award.
Wisden Cricketers of the Year Award Winners
Following are the list of Wisden Cricketers of the Year Award Winners since its introduction year(1889).
- No players were named for the Wisden Cricketers of the Year Award in 1916 or 1917, as the First World War prevented any first-class cricket being played in England, while in 1918 and 1919 the recipients were five schoolboy cricketers.
- From 1941 to 1946, the Second World War caused the same issue and no players were named for the Wisden Cricketers of the Year Award.
| Year | Recipient(s) | ||||
| 1889 | George Lohmann, Johnny Briggs, John Ferris, Charles Turner, Sammy Woods, Bobby Peel | ||||
| 1890 | Bobby Abel, Billy Barnes, Billy Gunn, Louis Hall, Robert Henderson, Maurice Read, Arthur Shrewsbury, Frank Sugg, Albert Ward | ||||
| 1891 | Jack Blackham | Gregor MacGregor | Dick Pilling | Mordecai Sherwin | Henry Wood |
| 1892 | William Attewell | J. T. Hearne | Frederick Martin | Arthur Mold | John Sharpe |
| 1893 | Herbie Hewett | Lionel Palairet | Walter Read | Stanley Scott | Andrew Stoddart |
| 1894 | George Giffen | Alec Hearne | Stanley Jackson | Harry Trott | Ted Wainwright |
| 1895 | Bill Brockwell | Jack Brown | C. B. Fry | Tom Hayward | Archie MacLaren |
| 1896 | W. G. Grace | ||||
| 1897 | Syd Gregory | Dick Lilley | Ranjitsinhji | Tom Richardson | Hugh Trumble |
| 1898 | Frederick Bull | Willis Cuttell | Frank Druce | Gilbert Jessop | Jack Mason |
| 1899 | Wilfred Rhodes | William Storer | Charlie Townsend | Albert Trott | William Lockwood |
| 1900 | Joe Darling | Clem Hill | Arthur Jones | Monty Noble | Robert Poore |
| 1901 | Tip Foster | Schofield Haigh | George Herbert Hirst | Tom Taylor | John Tunnicliffe |
| 1902 | Len Braund | Charlie McGahey | Frank Mitchell | Willie Quaife | Johnny Tyldesley |
| 1903 | Warwick Armstrong | Cuthbert Burnup | James Iremonger | Jim Kelly | Victor Trumper |
| 1904 | Colin Blythe | John Gunn | Albert Knight | Walter Mead | Plum Warner |
| 1905 | Bernard Bosanquet | Ernest Halliwell | James Hallows | Percy Perrin | Reggie Spooner |
| 1906 | David Denton | Walter Lees | George Thompson | Joe Vine | Levi Wright |
| 1907 | Jack Crawford | Arthur Fielder | Ernie Hayes | Kenneth Hutchings | Neville Knox |
| 1908 | Albert Hallam | Reggie Schwarz | Frank Tarrant | Bert Vogler | Thomas Wass |
| 1909 | Walter Brearley | Lord Hawke | Jack Hobbs | Alan Marshal | John Newstead |
| 1910 | Warren Bardsley | Sydney Barnes | Douglas Carr | Arthur Day | Vernon Ransford |
| 1911 | Harry Foster | Alfred Hartley | Charlie Llewellyn | Razor Smith | Frank Woolley |
| 1912 | Frank Foster | J. W. Hearne | Sep Kinneir | Phil Mead | Herbert Strudwick |
| 1913 | John Wisden | ||||
| 1914 | Major Booth | George Gunn | Bill Hitch | Albert Relf | Lionel Tennyson |
| 1915 | Johnny Douglas | Percy Fender | Wally Hardinge | Donald Knight | Sydney Smith |
| 1918 | Harry Calder | John Firth | Clement Gibson | Gerard Rotherham | Greville Stevens |
| 1919 | Percy Adams | Percy Chapman | Adrian Gore | Lionel Hedges | Norman Partridge |
| 1920 | Andy Ducat | Patsy Hendren | Percy Holmes | Herbert Sutcliffe | Ernest Tyldesley |
| 1921 | Pelham Warner | ||||
| 1922 | Hubert Ashton | Jack Bryan | Jack Gregory | Charlie Macartney | Ted McDonald |
| 1923 | Arthur Carr | Tich Freeman | Charlie Parker | Jack Russell | Andy Sandham |
| 1924 | Arthur Gilligan | Roy Kilner | George Macaulay | Cec Parkin | Maurice Tate |
| 1925 | Bob Catterall | Jack MacBryan | Herbie Taylor | Dick Tyldesley | William Whysall |
| 1926 | Jack Hobbs | ||||
| 1927 | George Geary | Harold Larwood | Jack Mercer | Bert Oldfield | Bill Woodfull |
| 1928 | Roger Blunt | Charlie Hallows | Wally Hammond | Douglas Jardine | Vallance Jupp |
| 1929 | Les Ames | George Duckworth | Maurice Leyland | Sam Staples | Jack White |
| 1930 | Ted Bowley | Duleepsinhji | Tuppy Owen-Smith | Walter Robins | Bob Wyatt |
| 1931 | Donald Bradman | Clarrie Grimmett | Beverley Lyon | Ian Peebles | Maurice Turnbull |
| 1932 | Bill Bowes | Stewie Dempster | James Langridge | Nawab of Pataudi senior | Hedley Verity |
| 1933 | Ewart Astill | Freddie Brown | Alec Kennedy | C. K. Nayudu | Bill Voce |
| 1934 | Fred Bakewell | George Headley | Stan Nichols | Leslie Townsend | Cyril Walters |
| 1935 | Stan McCabe | Bill O’Reilly | George Paine | Bill Ponsford | Jim Smith |
| 1936 | Jock Cameron | Errol Holmes | Bruce Mitchell | Denis Smith | Arthur Wellard |
| 1937 | Charlie Barnett | Bill Copson | Alf Gover | Vijay Merchant | Stan Worthington |
| 1938 | Tom Goddard | Joe Hardstaff Jr | Len Hutton | Jim Parks Sr | Eddie Paynter |
| 1939 | Hugh Bartlett | Bill Brown | Denis Compton | Kenneth Farnes | Arthur Wood |
| 1940 | Learie Constantine | Bill Edrich | Walter Keeton | Brian Sellers | Doug Wright |
| 1947 | Alec Bedser | Laurie Fishlock | Vinoo Mankad | Peter Smith | Cyril Washbrook |
| 1948 | Martin Donnelly | Alan Melville | Dudley Nourse | Jack Robertson | Norman Yardley |
| 1949 | Lindsay Hassett | Bill Johnston | Ray Lindwall | Arthur Morris | Don Tallon |
| 1950 | Trevor Bailey | Roly Jenkins | John Langridge | Reg Simpson | Bert Sutcliffe |
| 1951 | Godfrey Evans | Sonny Ramadhin | Alf Valentine | Everton Weekes | Frank Worrell |
| 1952 | Bob Appleyard | Tom Dollery | Jim Laker | Peter May | Eric Rowan |
| 1953 | Harold Gimblett | Tom Graveney | David Sheppard | Stuart Surridge | Fred Trueman |
| 1954 | Neil Harvey | Tony Lock | Keith Miller | Johnny Wardle | Willie Watson |
| 1955 | Bruce Dooland | Fazal Mahmood | Eric Hollies | Brian Statham | George Tribe |
| 1956 | Colin Cowdrey | Doug Insole | Jackie McGlew | Hugh Tayfield | Frank Tyson |
| 1957 | Dennis Brookes | Jim Burke | Malcolm Hilton | Gil Langley | Peter Richardson |
| 1958 | Peter Loader | Arthur McIntyre | Collie Smith | Mickey Stewart | Clyde Walcott |
| 1959 | Les Jackson | Roy Marshall | Arthur Milton | John Reid | Derek Shackleton |
| 1960 | Ken Barrington | Donald Carr | Ray Illingworth | Geoff Pullar | M. J. K. Smith |
| 1961 | Neil Adcock | Ted Dexter | Roy McLean | Raman Subba Row | Vic Wilson |
| 1962 | Bill Alley | Richie Benaud | Alan Davidson | Bill Lawry | Norm O’Neill |
| 1963 | Don Kenyon | Mushtaq Mohammad | Peter Parfitt | Phil Sharpe | Fred Titmus |
| 1964 | Brian Close | Charlie Griffith | Conrad Hunte | Rohan Kanhai | Garfield Sobers |
| 1965 | Geoffrey Boycott | Peter Burge | Jack Flavell | Graham McKenzie | Bob Simpson |
| 1966 | Colin Bland | John Edrich | Dick Motz | Peter Pollock | Graeme Pollock |
| 1967 | Bob Barber | Basil D’Oliveira | Colin Milburn | John Murray | Seymour Nurse |
| 1968 | Asif Iqbal | Hanif Mohammad | Ken Higgs | Jim Parks junior | Nawab of Pataudi junior |
| 1969 | Jimmy Binks | David Green | Barry Richards | Derek Underwood | Ossie Wheatley |
| 1970 | Basil Butcher | Alan Knott | Majid Khan | Mike Procter | Don Shepherd |
| 1971 | Jack Bond | Clive Lloyd | Brian Luckhurst | Glenn Turner | Roy Virgin |
| 1972 | Geoff Arnold | Bhagwat Chandrasekhar | Lance Gibbs | Brian Taylor | Zaheer Abbas |
| 1973 | Greg Chappell | Dennis Lillee | Bob Massie | John Snow | Keith Stackpole |
| 1974 | Keith Boyce | Bevan Congdon | Keith Fletcher | Roy Fredericks | Peter Sainsbury |
| 1975 | Dennis Amiss | Mike Denness | Norman Gifford | Tony Greig | Andy Roberts |
| 1976 | Ian Chappell | Peter Lee | Rick McCosker | David Steele | Bob Woolmer |
| 1977 | Mike Brearley | Gordon Greenidge | Michael Holding | Viv Richards | Bob Taylor |
| 1978 | Ian Botham | Mike Hendrick | Alan Jones | Ken McEwan | Bob Willis |
| 1979 | David Gower | John Lever | Chris Old | Clive Radley | John Shepherd |
| 1980 | Joel Garner | Sunil Gavaskar | Graham Gooch | Derek Randall | Brian Rose |
| 1981 | Kim Hughes | Robin Jackman | Allan Lamb | Clive Rice | Vintcent van der Bijl |
| 1982 | Terry Alderman | Allan Border | Richard Hadlee | Javed Miandad | Rod Marsh |
| 1983 | Imran Khan | Trevor Jesty | Alvin Kallicharran | Kapil Dev | Malcolm Marshall |
| 1984 | Mohinder Amarnath | Jeremy Coney | John Emburey | Mike Gatting | Chris Smith |
| 1985 | Martin Crowe | Larry Gomes | Geoff Humpage | Jack Simmons | Sidath Wettimuny |
| 1986 | Phil Bainbridge | Richard Ellison | Craig McDermott | Neal Radford | Tim Robinson |
| 1987 | John Childs | Graeme Hick | Dilip Vengsarkar | Courtney Walsh | James Whitaker |
| 1988 | Jonathan Agnew | Neil Foster | David Hughes | Peter Roebuck | Saleem Malik |
| 1989 | Kim Barnett | Jeff Dujon | Phil Neale | Franklyn Stephenson | Steve Waugh |
| 1990 | Jimmy Cook | Dean Jones | Jack Russell | Robin Smith | Mark Taylor |
| 1991 | Mike Atherton | Mohammad Azharuddin | Alan Butcher | Desmond Haynes | Mark Waugh |
| 1992 | Curtly Ambrose | Phillip DeFreitas | Allan Donald | Richie Richardson | Waqar Younis |
| 1993 | Nigel Briers | Martyn Moxon | Ian Salisbury | Alec Stewart | Wasim Akram |
| 1994 | David Boon | Ian Healy | Merv Hughes | Shane Warne | Steve Watkin |
| 1995 | Brian Lara | Devon Malcolm | Tim Munton | Steve Rhodes | Kepler Wessels |
| 1996 | Dominic Cork | Aravinda de Silva | Angus Fraser | Anil Kumble | Dermot Reeve |
| 1997 | Sanath Jayasuriya | Mushtaq Ahmed | Saeed Anwar | Phil Simmons | Sachin Tendulkar |
| 1998 | Matthew Elliott | Stuart Law | Glenn McGrath | Matthew Maynard | Graham Thorpe |
| 1999 | Ian Austin | Darren Gough | Muttiah Muralitharan | Arjuna Ranatunga | Jonty Rhodes |
| 2000 | Chris Cairns | Rahul Dravid | Lance Klusener | Tom Moody | Saqlain Mushtaq |
| 2001 | Mark Alleyne | Martin Bicknell | Andrew Caddick | Justin Langer | Darren Lehmann |
| 2002 | Andy Flower | Adam Gilchrist | Jason Gillespie | V. V. S. Laxman | Damien Martyn |
| 2003 | Matthew Hayden | Adam Hollioake | Nasser Hussain | Shaun Pollock | Michael Vaughan |
| 2004 | Chris Adams | Andrew Flintoff | Ian Harvey | Gary Kirsten | Graeme Smith |
| 2005 | Ashley Giles | Steve Harmison | Robert Key | Andrew Strauss | Marcus Trescothick |
| 2006 | Matthew Hoggard | Simon Jones | Brett Lee | Kevin Pietersen | Ricky Ponting |
| 2007 | Paul Collingwood | Mahela Jayawardene | Mohammed Yousuf | Monty Panesar | Mark Ramprakash |
| 2008 | Ian Bell | Shivnarine Chanderpaul | Ottis Gibson | Zaheer Khan | Ryan Sidebottom |
| 2009 | James Anderson | Dale Benkenstein | Mark Boucher | Neil McKenzie | Claire Taylor |
| 2010 | Stuart Broad | Michael Clarke | Graham Onions | Matt Prior | Graeme Swann |
| 2011 | Tamim Iqbal | Eoin Morgan | Chris Read | Jonathan Trott | Not awarded |
| 2012 | Tim Bresnan | Alastair Cook | Glen Chapple | Alan Richardson | Kumar Sangakkara |
| 2013 | Nick Compton | Hashim Amla | Jacques Kallis | Dale Steyn | Marlon Samuels |
| 2014 | Shikhar Dhawan | Charlotte Edwards | Ryan Harris | Chris Rogers | Joe Root |
| 2015 | Moeen Ali | Gary Ballance | Adam Lyth | Angelo Mathews | Jeetan Patel |
| 2016 | Jonny Bairstow | Brendon McCullum | Steve Smith | Ben Stokes | Kane Williamson |
| 2017 | Ben Duckett | Younis Khan | Misbah-ul-Haq | Toby Roland-Jones | Chris Woakes |
| 2018 | Shai Hope | Heather Knight | Jamie Porter | Natalie Sciver | Anya Shrubsole |
| 2019 | Tammy Beaumont | Rory Burns | Jos Buttler | Sam Curran | Virat Kohli |
| 2020 | Jofra Archer | Pat Cummins | Simon Harmer | Marnus Labuschagne | Ellyse Perry |
| 2021 | Zak Crawley | Darren Stevens | Jason Holder | Dom Sibley | Mohammad Rizwan |
| 2022 | Harmanpreet Kaur | Ben Foakes | Daryl Mitchell | Tom Blundell | Matthew Potts |
| 2023 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
