Wisden Cricket Monthly

Wisden Cricket Monthly is ‘the independent voice of cricket’. Read the best writers, exclusive interviews, and the most comprehensive coverage of both the professional and amateur game every month.

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THE Top Six

Khawaja’s censure exposes ICC’s double standards • The ICC’s decision to ban Usman Khawaja from wearing boots highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the latest in a long line of inconsistencies and iniquities from the governing body, writes Andrew Miller

Team of the Month • Jo Harman picks a team of the month’s standout performers, including two fast bowlers who shone on Test debut

England women: the 2024 inbox • Following an uneven winter tour of India, Katya Witney looks forward to a challenging year for the England women’s team ahead of the T20 World Cup in September

The Northumberland Project • Northumberland, at the northernmost tip of England, is an unlikely place to find a thriving cricketing community, but a collaborative project between the local cricket board and Chance to Shine is taking the game into new and untapped areas, writes Hamza Shehryar

Elgar plays his own tune till the last • With Dean Elgar’s retirement from Test cricket followed by the naming of a second-string squad for South Africa’s tour of New Zealand, Lawrence Booth says signs of the longer format’s decay are becoming increasingly hard to ignore

NEWS CYCLE • Ben Gardner gets dizzy trying to follow a spin setting at 1600 RPM

MICHAEL VAUGHAN

RE:VIEW • Ahead of England’s five-match Test series in India, we asked three writers for their predictions

The Game’s GONE • James Wallace (and his alter-ego) picks over the demise of the longest format

Mailbox • In association with Chapel Down, the letter of the month receives a bottle of awardwinning English sparkling wine – Chapel Down Brut. Based in Kent, Chapel Down is England’s leading wine producer and the official sparkling wine of the ECB.

‘We failed those individuals’ • Two years after it was commissioned, the independent report into historical allegations of racial discrimination at Essex CCC was finally published in December, exposing a culture in which racist language was used in both the dressing room and positions of power. Phil Walker considers the ramifications

In other news...

A Passage to India • For much of the next two months Ben Stokes’ trailblazers will be passing through some of India’s remotest cricketing outposts, aiming to pull off the near-impossible. What chance, if any, do they have? Phil Walker introduces our 20-page special looking at this most intriguing of rivalries

RAshwin • Having tormented England on their last visit to his backyard in 2021, India’s cerebral off-spinner has been busy hatching new plans to counter a different style of play. Anand Vasu takes a closer look at a 37-year-old who, a dozen years on from his Test debut, is still expanding his knowledge of the game

Grace under fire • John Stern looks back on England’s triumphant visit to India in 1984/85, when David Gower ’s under-strength tourists prevailed against a backdrop of assassinations and political chaos

India’s dream factory • Every year, in the build-up to the IPL, India’s conveyor belt churns out more young male talents of outrageous skill, each of them desperate to make the grade. But behind the shimmer and promise, what is life really like for those on the edge of fame and fortune? Aadya Sharma investigates

WISDEN 2023 MEN’S TEST XI • THE TEAM WAS SELECTED BASED ON PERFORMANCES FROM JANUARY 1-DECEMBER 31, 2023

1. USMAN KHAWAJA

2. ZAK CRAWLEY

3. KANE WILLIAMSON

INNINGS OF THE YEAR

4. JOE...