I'm guessing Salman Butt (Billy Butts, Doonesbury fans?) is not the missing player:
Wisden names four Cricketers of the Year
The 2011 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack will feature only four Cricketers of the Year, instead of the usual five, after the editor, Scyld Berry, chose to break with ancient tradition to reflect a year in which allegations of corruption during Pakistan's tour of England left a stain on the sport's reputation.
If [the player in question] were exonerated, then it would be possible to reconsider the position," explained Berry. "That's why I didn't pick anyone else instead. But as things stand, we don't feel we can choose him. It's all very sad."
Cant believe of the four nominated players one is Chris Read! I mean where's Tendulkar who scored 200 in the one game, or Mike Hussey or Kallis!
Posted by: ankit | Saturday, April 09, 2011 at 01:43 PM
Ankit, these awards are based on influence on the English season. Also Tendulkar was ineligible anyway, having been one of the Cricketers of the Year in 1997.
Posted by: David Barry | Saturday, April 09, 2011 at 02:03 PM
What DB said. You can only win it once. Apparently the contentious omission is Cook, who scored big in Australia but was dismal the rest of the year.
The full list. The only Cook to win a cricketer of the year is Jimmy Cook.
Posted by: Tony | Saturday, April 09, 2011 at 04:16 PM
And the last bowler to be knighted was...? Anyone? Anyone?
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 03:57 PM
Bueller?
Posted by: Tony | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 06:17 PM
Francis fookin' Drake!
Posted by: Freddie Trueman | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 06:34 PM
Richard Hadlee.
Posted by: Tony | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 06:47 PM
Alec Bedser.
Posted by: Tony | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 06:50 PM
Admittedly, it took me a few years to "get" the joke [hey, I was about 10 at the time]. Freddie was the first person to make me realise history could be funny.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 07:12 PM
Any list that has Ashley Giles on it is rubbish anyway.
Posted by: Yobbo | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 08:52 PM
Fair call.
Posted by: Tony | Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 09:26 PM
5 for 88.
7 for 229.
Is it possible our bowling will get worse before it gets better?
Posted by: Tony | Monday, April 11, 2011 at 05:17 PM
So let me get this straight... this is like The Simpsons where eventually the inanimate carbon rod wins employee of the month?
Fark me, and people whinge that the Brownlow is a joke. That's just ridiculous.
ps: Thanks for the heads-up Dave, Tony, I didn't know those two conditions.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Monday, April 11, 2011 at 07:04 PM
this is like The Simpsons where eventually the inanimate carbon rod wins employee of the month?
That would be true if the average number of eligible cricketers = cricketers' average career in years. Clearly this is not the case.
[I don't do humour well]
Posted by: Professor Frink | Monday, April 11, 2011 at 07:10 PM
The most famous (but probably apocryphal) anecdote about Drake relates that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake
Posted by: Rainier Wolfcastle | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 02:34 PM
The bowler — not the cowboy hat or sombrero — was the most popular hat in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West."[4] Both cowboys and railroad workers preferred the hat because it wouldn't blow off easily in strong wind, or when sticking one's head out the window of a speeding train. It was worn by both lawmen and outlaws, including Bat Masterson, Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowler_hat
Posted by: Billy the Kid, aka the bowler Craig McDermott | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 02:37 PM
The Plymouth Hoe story gets a run by Bill Hunter in Crackerjack... so it must be true!
Posted by: TKYCraig | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 02:52 PM
I nevar evarr would have seen that movie of my own free will involving any sort of effort [Judith Lucy, world's moaniest comedienne, probably had a lot to do with it]. But it was on rotation as a house movie during a hotel stay. Got a few laffs out of it.
The cheese wheel. The fact that he arranged his whole life around a really good car parking spot. Can't remember the Plymouth Hoe story. Christ, I musta seen it 3 times that week. Losing my memory.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 03:02 PM
"it wouldn't blow off easily in strong wind" -- I wonder if the person who wrote that has ever worn a bowler hat.
Posted by: Professor Rosseforp | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 03:53 PM