8

Notes by the Editor

CONTENTS

Part One Comment

14

Suddenly, everything went “Boom!” by Roland Watson

Next Botham: the quest ends by Peter Hayter

No hard feelings, mate: the beer is back by Derek Pringle

Aye, aye, coach by Gideon Haigh

With Allah on their side by Osman Samiuddin

“We’ll have a bowl.” And why not? by Rahul Bhattacharya

SEEING TWENTY20

A father’s view by Francis Wheen

An American view by Michael Goldfarb

A view from the Old Dear by Clement Freud

The amazing story of the runaway train by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan 57 The world of Flantiff and Vorner by Ben Wilson 61 FIVE CRICKETERS OF THE YEAR

26

30

34

37

44

47

51

52

54

Matthew Hoggard by David Hopps

64

Simon Jones by Steve James

66

Brett Lee by Kevin Mitchell

67

Kevin Pietersen by Paul Hayward

69

Ricky Ponting by Bruce Wilson

71

The Commons blames Lord’s by Steven Barnett

73

Sixty years of post-war cricket by Matthew Engel and Philip Bailey 74 The members? Oh, them! by Stephen Fay 77 Setting the records straight by Matthew Engel and Andrew Samson 79

Part Two The Ashes

The Ashes

ASHES AFTERTHOUGHTS

In the footsteps of Len’s legends by John Woodcock

Ten reasons why England won by Simon Hughes

A wake-up call, but no alarm by Mark Taylor

The Women’s Ashes

THE ASHES IN THE MEDIA

All hail! The wazzock with the skunk! by Quentin Letts

Suddenly, everything gets reversed by Malcolm Knox

How the Ashes infiltrated the language by Lawrence Booth

82

126

128

130

132

139

145

151

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Part Three World View

World cricket in 2005 by Simon Wilde

Test averages, 2005

Index of Tests

Part Four The Players

THE WISDEN FORTY

The Leading Cricketer in the World: Andrew Flintoff

by Simon Barnes

The Forty

Retirements

Career figures

Births and deaths of Test cricketers

Register of current players

Cricketers of the Year, 1889–2006

Contents

First-class

Test (overall)

Test (series by series)

Part Five Records

266

272

310

352

One-day international

List A one-day

Miscellaneous

Women’s Test

9

154

163

167

170

172

188

193

194

241

262

459

473

475

479

Part Six English Cricket

The England team in 2005 by Scyld Berry

England players in 2005

England Test averages in 2005

Features of 2005

First-class averages

STATISTICS

495

500 Scores of 100 and over

Ten wickets in a match

482

487

494

508

512

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET IN ENGLAND

England v Bangladesh

Australians in England

NatWest Challenge

513

526

529

NatWest Series (E/A/B)

537

Bangladesh A in England 548 ICC Trophy 555

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