The cricket ‘bible’, the Wisden Cricketer’s Almanac has named Indian cricket player Virender Sehwag the ‘Leading cricketer of the year’. In addition Wisden also came out with a ‘Dream test XI’ team which named Mahendra Singh Dhoni as its captain and as many as 5 Indian players in its ranks. Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are the other Indians in the dream team.  

Main Text: Last year Virender Sehwag scored 319 off 304 balls, making this the fastest triple century ever in international cricket. He hit a double century against Sri Lanka at a time when everything else seemed to be going wrong. He hit three consecutive sixes of the first three balls right at the beginning of a series. He has dominated oppositions, and undermined bowling attacks like no other.

"Sehwag is a marvel of modern times, a genius who has confounded conventional wisdom, whose daring is now a part of cricket’s folklore," writes the cricket almanac in its 146th edition as explanation for having honoured him with the international cricket award of leading cricketer of the year.  

The award was constituted in 2004 and has been awarded to Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan and Jacques Kallis in the past. Wisden observed that Sehwag took the task of opening Test innings to a new level, and overtook Graeme Smith who was the other contender for the award.

As for the ‘dream test team’ picked by the Wisden Almanac, which was picked by former India captain Ravi Shastri, retired West Indian pacer Ian Bishop and former New Zealand player Ian Smith has maximum representation from India, Australia and South Africa having only two players each picked for the dream team. “The criteria for selection are simple: the best eleven to play a Test match, no matter the opposition, guided by performances in 2008, and taking into consideration the amount of Test cricket they played in the year, the quality of their opponents, and that indefinable blend of class and form,” was the stated criteria for selection of the dream team.

The three panelists deciding on the team had no difficulty deciding on the captain of the dream team; it was a unanimous decision to pick M S Dhoni as the wicket keeper as well as no 7. Dhoni was the choice of two of the panelists as captain not only because of his talent and ability but because of his charisma. "Bishop selected him because of his charisma, which seems to permeate the Indian dressing-room and bring the best out of his team. The former West Indian pacer also noted that India lost in Sri Lanka when Dhoni sat out the series. Among other reasons, Shastri liked the way he handles the media in a media-frenzied country, and is immensely composed," said Wisden editor, Scyld Berry.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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