# Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World

The Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World is an annual cricket award selected by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. It was established in 2004, to select the best cricketer based upon their performances anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year. A notional list of previous winners, spanning from 1900 to 2002, was published in the 2007 edition of Wisden.
Since 1889, Wisden has published a list of Cricketers of the Year, typically selecting five cricketers that had the greatest impact during the previous English cricket season. However, 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. This criterion was applied for the following three years, but in 2004 it reverted to being based on the English season, and a Leading Cricketer in the World was also selected. The recipient of the award is selected by the editor of Wisden, with advice from cricket experts. An Australian, Ricky Ponting was chosen as the first winner of the award, for scoring 1,503 runs in international cricket, including eleven centuries during 2003.
In the 2007 edition of Wisden, a list of winners for previous years was published. A sixteen-person panel helped to select the winners, which Engel described as the cricketer that "would have been the first name down in the World XI to play Mars". It was decided that the first year that would be listed was 1900, as prior to that Engel claimed international cricket was too "inchoate and haphazard to make comparison sensible". No awards were made for the periods of the World Wars, leaving a list of 93 winners. During this selection, Don Bradman was listed the most, winning on ten occasions, while Garfield Sobers was the leading cricketer eight times. Engel noted that despite attempts to the contrary, the award maintains cricket's bias towards batsmen.

## List of award winners
### Actual winners

* Note that each year's Leading Cricketer of the World is announced in the following year's Wisden, so the 2003 winner was announced in 2004, and so on.
| Year | Player | Country |
| 2003 | Ricky Ponting | Australia |
| 2004 | Shane Warne | Australia |
| 2005 | Andrew Flintoff | England |
| 2006 | Muttiah Muralitharan | Sri Lanka |
| 2007 | Jacques Kallis | South Africa |
| 2008 | Virender Sehwag | India |
| 2009 | Virender Sehwag | India |
| 2010 | Sachin Tendulkar | India |
| 2011 | Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka |
| 2012 | Michael Clarke | Australia |
| 2013 | Dale Steyn | South Africa |
| 2014 | Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka |
| 2015 | Kane Williamson | New Zealand |
| 2016 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2017 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2018 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2019 | Ben Stokes | England |
| 2020 | Ben Stokes | England |
| 2021 | Joe Root | England |
| 2022 | Ben Stokes | England |
| 2023 | Pat Cummins | Australia |

### Women's award winners

| Year | Player | Country |
| 2014 | Meg Lanning | Australia |
| 2015 | Suzie Bates | New Zealand |
| 2016 | Ellyse Perry | Australia |
| 2017 | Mithali Raj | India |
| 2018 | Smriti Mandhana | India |
| 2019 | Ellyse Perry | Australia |
| 2020 | Beth Mooney | Australia |
| 2021 | Lizelle Lee | South Africa |
| 2022 | Beth Mooney | Australia |
| 2023 | Nat Sciver-Brunt | England |

### Notional winners

| Year | Player | Country |
| 1900 | K. S. Ranjitsinhji | England |
| 1901 | C. B. Fry | England |
| 1902 | Victor Trumper | Australia |
| 1903 | C. B. Fry | England |
| 1904 | Bernard Bosanquet | England |
| 1905 | Stanley Jackson | England |
| 1906 | George Hirst | England |
| 1907 | Bert Vogler | South Africa |
| 1908 | Monty Noble | Australia |
| 1909 | Wilfred Rhodes | England |
| 1910 | Aubrey Faulkner | South Africa |
| 1911 | Victor Trumper | Australia |
| 1912 | Sydney Barnes | England |
| 1913 | Sydney Barnes | England |
| 1914 | Jack Hobbs | England |
| 1915–18 | Not awarded due to World War I | Not awarded due to World War I |
| 1919 | Jack Gregory | Australia |
| 1920 | Herbie Collins | Australia |
| 1921 | Charlie Macartney | Australia |
| 1922 | Jack Hobbs | England |
| 1923 | Patsy Hendren | England |
| 1924 | Maurice Tate | England |
| 1925 | Jack Hobbs | England |
| 1926 | Charlie Macartney | Australia |
| 1927 | Bill Ponsford | Australia |
| 1928 | Tich Freeman | England |
| 1929 | Wally Hammond | England |
| 1930 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1931 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1932 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1933 | Harold Larwood | England |
| 1934 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1935 | Stan McCabe | Australia |
| 1936 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1937 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1938 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1939 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1940–45 | Not awarded due to World War II | Not awarded due to World War II |
| 1946 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1947 | Denis Compton | England |
| 1948 | Don Bradman | Australia |
| 1949 | Len Hutton | England |
| 1950 | Frank Worrell | West Indies |
| 1951 | Keith Miller | Australia |
| 1952 | Len Hutton | England |
| 1953 | Alec Bedser | England |
| 1954 | Clyde Walcott | West Indies |
| 1955 | Frank Tyson | England |
| 1956 | Jim Laker | England |
| 1957 | Peter May | England |
| 1958 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1959 | Richie Benaud | Australia |
| 1960 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1961 | Alan Davidson | Australia |
| 1962 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1963 | Fred Trueman | England |
| 1964 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1965 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1966 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1967 | Graeme Pollock | South Africa |
| 1968 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1969 | Graeme Pollock | South Africa |
| 1970 | Garfield Sobers | West Indies |
| 1971 | Mike Procter | South Africa |
| 1972 | Dennis Lillee | Australia |
| 1973 | Barry Richards | South Africa |
| 1974 | Jeff Thomson | Australia |
| 1975 | Clive Lloyd | West Indies |
| 1976 | Viv Richards | West Indies |
| 1977 | Dennis Lillee | Australia |
| 1978 | Viv Richards | West Indies |
| 1979 | Greg Chappell | Australia |
| 1980 | Viv Richards | West Indies |
| 1981 | Ian Botham | England |
| 1982 | Imran Khan | Pakistan |
| 1983 | Kapil Dev | India |
| 1984 | Joel Garner | West Indies |
| 1985 | Richard Hadlee | New Zealand |
| 1986 | Malcolm Marshall | West Indies |
| 1987 | Martin Crowe | New Zealand |
| 1988 | Malcolm Marshall | West Indies |
| 1989 | Allan Border | Australia |
| 1990 | Graham Gooch | England |
| 1991 | Curtly Ambrose | West Indies |
| 1992 | Wasim Akram | Pakistan |
| 1993 | Shane Warne | Australia |
| 1994 | Brian Lara | West Indies |
| 1995 | Brian Lara | West Indies |
| 1996 | Sanath Jayasuriya | Sri Lanka |
| 1997 | Shane Warne | Australia |
| 1998 | Sachin Tendulkar | India |
| 1999 | Steve Waugh | Australia |
| 2000 | Muttiah Muralitharan | Sri Lanka |
| 2001 | Glenn McGrath | Australia |
| 2002 | Matthew Hayden | Australia |

## Multiple winners

Unlike Wisden's Cricketers of the Year, players can be recognised more than once as the Leading Cricketer in the World, and eighteen players have been selected for multiple years. The majority of these have won the award twice, but seven players have been recognised for three or more years: Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers, Jack Hobbs, Viv Richards, Shane Warne, Virat Kohli and Ben Stokes. In the 2007 edition which published the notional historical winners, Engel noted with "surprise and pleasure" that the first five players were the same as had been selected as Wisden's five Cricketers of the Century.
Sachin Tendulkar and Warne have both been selected as notional and actual winners, while Virender Sehwag was the first player to be recognised twice by Wisden as an actual winner since 2004. Kumar Sangakkara has since similarly been selected twice, and in 2012 he became the first player to be recognised twice in one edition of Wisden, as both Leading Cricketer in the World and a Cricketer of the Year.
| Player | Awards | Years |
| Don Bradman | 10 | 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1946, 1948 |
| Garfield Sobers | 8 | 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970 |
| Jack Hobbs | 3 | 1914, 1922, 1925 |
| Virat Kohli | 3 | 2016, 2017, 2018 |
| Viv Richards | 3 | 1976, 1978, 1980 |
| Ben Stokes | 3 | 2019, 2020, 2022 |
| Shane Warne | 3 | 1993, 1997, 2004 |
| Sydney Barnes | 2 | 1912, 1913 |
| C. B. Fry | 2 | 1901, 1903 |
| Len Hutton | 2 | 1949, 1952 |
| Brian Lara | 2 | 1994, 1995 |
| Dennis Lillee | 2 | 1972, 1977 |
| Charlie Macartney | 2 | 1921, 1926 |
| Malcolm Marshall | 2 | 1986, 1988 |
| Muttiah Muralitharan | 2 | 2000, 2006 |
| Graeme Pollock | 2 | 1967, 1969 |
| Kumar Sangakkara | 2 | 2011, 2014 |
| Virender Sehwag | 2 | 2008, 2009 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 2 | 1998, 2010 |
| Victor Trumper | 2 | 1902, 1911 |

## Winners by country

* Australia – 36 (31.6%)
* England – 32 (28.1%)
* West Indies – 20 (17.5%)
* India – 8 (7%)
* South Africa – 8 (7%)
* Sri Lanka – 5 (4.4%)
* New Zealand – 3 (2.6%)
* Pakistan – 2 (1.8%)
Cricketers from eight of the twelve Test playing nations have been recognised for the award by Wisden, with Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan not represented. Players from Australia and England dominate the list, having won more than half of the time, although this is disproportionately the case in the notional list. Prior to World War II, 34 of the 36 winners played for Australia or England. The "actual" award winners are more evenly distributed; Indian players have won six times, English players five times and Australian players four times, whilst players from Sri Lanka have received the award on three occasions since 2004.
Awards by country :
| Country | Awards |
| Australia | 36 |
| England | 32 |
| West Indies | 20 |
| India | 8 |
| South Africa | 8 |
| Sri Lanka | 5 |
| New Zealand | 3 |
| Pakistan | 2 |