Five jewels for Wisden

Editing Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack may be the plummest job in cricket journalism but that doesn’t mean the man on the throne doesn’t need a helping hand. (And yes, it’s always the hairier of the species: after all, now that Moira Cameron has become the Tower of London’s first female beefeater, the post remains one of this green and sometimes pleasant land’s few unstormable male bastions.)

Scyld Berry, arguably the most broad-spectrumed, lateral-thinking writer ever to grace a cricket pressbox, is acting as locum for the yellow bible’s 2008 edition as Matthew Engel takes a richly-earned sabbatical. As ever, his trickiest task will be to choose his Five Cricketers of the Year, an honour recently restored to its original confines – prime consideration is given to those summering in England. In other words, before you start shouting at me for bypassing Stuart Clark, Yousuf Youhana and Kumar Sangakkara, exploits overseas count for little or nowt. In the interests of brotherhood and posterity, therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to proffer some fairly humble suggestions. And yes, I know the season isn’t quite over, but on the basis that achievements over the last three weeks of a five-and-a-half-month campaign can, and should, only count for so much, that should not be a deterrent.

First, though, a rider. The rules have always precluded the nomination of any previous Cricketer of the Year, which is an especial pity this year. The star county turns, after all, have been the oldies – Andy Caddick, Ottis Gibson, Mark Ramprakash and Mushtaq Ahmed, of whom only Gibson has not hitherto been a recipient. So with that in mind, the nominees are…

He ebbed and flowed in the Tests, relegated to No.6 and even 7 by his returning captain and assorted nightwatchmen, but in the one-day series against India, to date at least, he has been the best batsman on view. Given the stiffness of the competition, numbering as it does Messrs Collingwood, Dhoni, Dravid, Pietersen and Tendulkar, this should on no account be sniffed at. Finally beginning to assert and impose, he is surely England’s long-term five-day No.3, as frequently hinted at during the Ashes series. One blessing arising from Andrew Strauss’s decline is that it may persuade Michael Vaughan to open with Alastair Cook in Sri Lanka. Either way, that sheepish, “Do I really belong?” smile has been usurped by the beginnings of a fiendishly sadistic grin.

“He should be extra careful and avoid getting excited while playing, else, it may dampen his game.” So says astrologer Bejan Daruwalla’s Tarot card reading for Guyana’s gutsiest. Which tells you almost all you need to know about astrologers. The only thing that appears to excite Chanderpaul the Test batsman is occupying creases for days on end and annoying purists and opposition alike. All but left in the lurch by Brian Lara’s retirement, Ramnaresh Sarwan’s injury and Chris Gayle’s frippery, he rose heroically to the occasion: getting him out has been the summer’s stiffest ask. A pity he has been deemed unsuitable captaincy material: nobody in this dark decade for Caribbean cricket, not even dear Brian, has done more to lead by example.

Speaking of which… Given that coaching acumen and those Bajan roots, it seems barely credible that the West Indies have seen fit to overlook his services in some capacity or other. Not that Durham are complaining: his enduring potency as a seamer brought the most tenderfooted first-class county their first piece of silverware, and may yet bring home their first rasher of Championship bacon. A decisive burst in the Friends Provident final and the first 10-for in county cricket since 1994 comprised the icing on a resplendent cake.

On figures alone, Danish Kaneria should win my vote, but why not reward persistence, especially when it comes packaged in such inspiringly Disneyfied wrapping? It would, admittedly, be far too insular to describe the Surrey leggie’s revival as the comeback of the sporting summer: Rick Ankiel of the St Louis Cardinals, a highly-touted pitcher who lost his nerve a few years back after an horrendous playoff game, has lately been reborn as a home-run hitter, a conversion akin to Glenn McGrath learning how to mash middle-order hundreds. Still, the erstwhile Great White Hope of English spin has worked untold wonders in reigniting a career that could yet be, if not as great as hoped and hyped, then certainly a great deal better than most feared after his rapid decline. Hand injury permitting, the Twenty20 world championship - his mother burst into tears of relief when his name was announced in England’s preliminary squad - may confirm the unlikeliest second coming since the Mullet.

The pitches may be subterranean much of the time, but a summer at Worcestershire need not be a total waste. A late replacement for Nathan Bracken, India’s erratic spearhead took 78 Championship wickets in 2006, sussing out the terrain and returning to torment England’s batsmen as no left-arm quick has done since Wasim Akram. Of his 18 wickets in the Pataudi Trophy series, 12 were plucked from the top six in the first two Tests, five of them in that rubber-resolving second innings at Trent Bridge. Nobody, one rather suspects, will ever offer him jellybeans again.