Australian trio among Wisden's elite

Australian Test players Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn have won selection among the five Cricketers of the Year in the 2002 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

All three were included in the elite list on the basis of their performances during Australia's crushing 4-1 rout of England in the 2001 Ashes series.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Gilchrist was praised for his outstanding skill and, in particular, his capacity to lash Test hundreds from his comparatively low position in the batting order. It was Gillespie's hostility as a pace bowler which meanwhile won him his place, and Martyn was lauded for the grace of his strokeplay on the way to 382 runs in the five-match Ashes series.

The list was rounded out with the inclusion of India's VVS Laxman and Zimbabwe's Andy Flower, ensuring that no English player was among the year's five nominations for only the second time in the 139-year history of the publication.

Players can only be included on the list once in their careers.

In further condemnation of the English game, Wisden's editor Graeme Wright took issue with the current value of county cricket in a scathing attack on domestic competition in the country.

Wright wrote that the English county system represented "a confederacy of mediocrity" and raised doubts as to its capacity to continue to enhance the development of the sport in England.

"Counties should be able to attract and entertain an audience, and they must provide the right players for the national teams. Many no longer seem capable of fulfilling these conditions," he added.