The First Wisden Cricketers of the Year — Six Great Bowlers, 1889

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack had been founded in 1864 by John Wisden, the Sussex bowler. By the late 1880s it was the standard annual record of English cricket. The Pardon family (Charles, then Sydney, then Stewart) edited it from 1880 to 1925.

The 1888 summer had been unusually wet. Pitches were unprotected and turned vicious overnight. Bowlers, particularly Turner, Ferris, Lohmann and Briggs, had statistical seasons unlike anything before or since.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack had been published continuously since 1864, but until 1889 it carried no individual end-of-season honours. Charles Pardon, who had taken over as editor, decided to mark the 1888 summer with portraits of six bowlers — the headliners of an exceptionally wet, bowler-dominated season. Hawkins of Brighton was commissioned to take medallion photographs.

The selection was openly skewed to bowling. Pardon explained that 'to signalise the extraordinary success that bowlers had achieved in 1888, the Almanack was including six portraits.' Three were England professionals — George Lohmann (Surrey), Bobby Peel (Yorkshire), Johnny Briggs (Lancashire). Three were Australians who had toured England that summer — Charlie Turner, JJ Ferris and Sammy Woods (born in Australia but already qualified for England, and effectively English thereafter).

The 1888 numbers were extraordinary. Turner alone had taken 314 wickets (across all eleven-a-side cricket including non-first-class). The six combined had 1,272 wickets at 11.89 — a season aggregate that has not been approached since uncovered pitches were abolished.

From 1890 onwards Wisden settled on five Cricketers of the Year per Almanack, a system that has continued more or less unbroken (with occasional six-name lists for special years) into the modern era. The list remains arguably the most prestigious annual cricket honour outside knighthoods.

“To signalise the extraordinary success that bowlers had achieved in 1888.”

Wisden has named Cricketers of the Year almost every year since 1889 (with brief war and pandemic exceptions). The honour is for-life and once-only — once named, a player cannot be picked again. By 2026 the list has named over 600 cricketers.

The 1888 summer remains the high-water mark of bowling dominance in English cricket. Turner's 283 first-class wickets (1888) was beaten only by Tom Richardson (1895) and Tich Freeman (twice in the 1920s and 1930s). Lohmann's career bowling average ended below 11 — still the lowest for any bowler with 100+ Test wickets.