Muralitharan wins Wisden's leading player award

Goodbye Shane: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2007 © Wisden

Muttiah Muralitharan has been picked by Wisden as the Leading Cricketer of the Year ahead of Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne and Mohammad Yousuf. The Almanack, which is published today, awarded Muralitharan the prize after taking 90 Test wickets at 16.90 last year.

Yousuf was named as a Cricketer of the Year alongside Monty Panesar, Paul Collingwood, Mark Ramprakash and Mahela Jayawardene based on their influence in an English season. Jayawardene led a striking Sri Lankan fightback in their Test series against England; Yousuf, with 631 runs in four Tests, saved Pakistan from complete disaster in theirs; Collingwood and Panesar established themselves as England matchwinners, while Ramprakash, aged 36, had an astounding summer for Surrey.

In his article celebrating the new No. 1, Simon Barnes attacks Murali's critics: "They are a familiar type: sneerers and begrudgers, the pusillanimous possessors of small minds and large opinions. Muralitharan is a truly great cricketer, and those that cannot go along with such a sentiment have something lacking in their souls. The spirit of cricket, perhaps."

However, Murali does not make the cover of the 144th edition of the Almanack, which instead carries Warne for the second year in a row. Last year he shared the space with Andrew Flintoff, but he has the front to himself after retiring from Tests after the 2006-07 Ashes series. "The heart of this year's Wisden is the dramatic tale of the Ashes and Warne's last hurrah," the editor Matthew Engel said. "It's a great picture and it conveys the year's biggest cricketing story."

The new Wisden takes the leading cricketer award a step further and considers what might have been had it been invented more than a century earlier. A panel of 16 writers and historians researched back to 1900 and picked an outstanding player for each year.

With no ban on repeat winners, an extraordinary coincidence emerged when only five players won the title more than twice. Don Bradman (ten times), Garry Sobers (eight) and Jack Hobbs, Viv Richards and Shane Warne (three times each) were the multiple victors and each was named as a Cricketer of the 20th Century in Wisden seven years ago.