WHY THREE OF MY CRICKETERS OF THE YEAR ARE WOMEN
THE 155th Wisden is published today — with a reminder that it is never too late to change your ways. This year, for the first time since the Almanack began naming Cricketers of the Year in 1889, there is more than one woman among the traditional five. In fact, there are three. In Wisden territory, this is more serious than a revolution — it is a statistical anomaly. Of the 590 players previously chosen for the award, only two — Claire Taylor in 2009 and Charlotte Edwards in 2 2014 — were not men. You might th think it was long overdue. You would be right. As the editor who chose Heather Knight, Natalie Sciver and Anya Shrubsole (as well as Shai Hope a and Jamie Porter), I can’t claim to be anything more than in the r right place at the right time. Pakistan fans may disagree, but England’s World Cup triumph la last July — when Shrubsole plucked the trophy from India’s grasp with a spell of five for 11 in 19 balls — was the story of the h home summer. If the women hadn’t dominated this year, they might as well have been ignored for good. Knight was the captain, and Sciver the star all-rounder, sparkling so brightly that she had a shot named after her — the ‘Natmeg’, an ingenious deflection between her legs that was thought to be extinct. All three of them put women’s cricket on the map. But if Wisden had failed to reflect the significance of the World Cup — a tournament that will go down as a turning point in the history of women’s cricket — we would not have been doing our job. Perhaps the best bit about both the cover and the Five is that they don’t feel forced. Knight, Sciver and Shrubsole are there not because of gender, but because they deserve to be. Here’s to the day when female Wisden Cricketers of the Year feel as normal as rain at the start of the Championship season and agonising over the future of Test cricket.