Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Please vote for the best Test player over the last 12 months.

Minimum eight matches accepted.

I went for Rhino. Who has been phenomenal home and away. The batter of the year has been Clarke. Yet Australia, overall, haven't had a great year. I guess this win makes up for that though.

Peter Siddle, should be no1 in the test bowling rankings in my opinion.

This is a toughie. I guess batting wise, Michael Clarke does seem to have that nailed down, although you wouldn't think so watching his dismissal today. Ian Bell had a bumper summer. Ross Taylor has had a pretty good year for the Kiwis. On the bowling front, Stuart Broad has been the leading wicket taker. Dale Steyn has been.... Dale Steyn. Ryan Harris is having the year of his life. Overall, I'd have to give it to Clarke, not only for his batting, but for his role in keeping his team from completely falling apart when Mickey Arthur was sacked, and for the way has has managed to turn things around so comprehensively for the Oz team.

I go for Brad Haddin an unlikely choice maybe but since returning as first choice keeper he has broken many records and his batting has been a main reason why the Aussie team are where they are.

A tough one given the disparity in the number of tests played by each country. I've almost had to put a pin in to decide between Pujara, Steyn and ABDV. De Villiers, just, I think because he has had to cope with being thrust into the keeper's role as well.

Only England and Australia have played a great deal of cricket overseas this year, which counted against India and SA players for me. Otherwise I might have gone for Pujara. Chanderpaul and Ashwin I didn't pick for the shortlist because they haven't played eight games, which was a pretty arbitrary qualification, and most of the SA players only played eight. Still, WI played a lot of weaker teams, and India mostly at home, so I didn't mind too much leaving them out. Kohli made the shortlist principally for scoring a hundred in SA. Southee arguably should be in, but no one would pick him number one, so it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I think Australia have had a tough year, with two Ashes series, and a tour of India, so anyone who has done well out of that lot deserves some credit.

i used to have a work colleague who used an expression regarding some of our senior managers. he said " they rose through lack of weight" which I thought a great remark. In some respect that could be applied to SA who don't put their number one position on the line often enough to risk defeat. That cannot be said about England who put their reputation on the line probably too often for their own good.

AB De Villiers

Got to be Ryan Harris.

Steyn for me. 48 wickets at an average of 17 in 2013.

Clarke

CMS player is a tie. As self appointed chairman, I'm giving it to Harris, and will present it to him on the Packer yacht at the end of the series after he has announced his retirement and fallen out with Michael Clarke. Over a song.

I stumbled across this article just now and thought it was interesting;

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1902599-ranking-the-top-50-test-cricketers-of-2013

The top 10 -

1 - ABDV
2 - MJ
3 - Ravi Ashwin
4 - Chet
5 - Jadeja
6 - Ryan Harris
7 - Michael Clarke
8 - Mominal Haque
9 - Dale Steyn
10 - Saeed Ajmal

I wonder if the people who have voted for Pup are a bit confused about the relevant period?
Clarke's best performances came towards the end of 2012 when he scored those 2 double hundreds against SA and a hundred against SL in the Boxing Day Test. His 2013 was good but by no means, the standout player. The likes of AB and Pujara have far better averages and throw in AB's very competent wicketkeeping and its really a no brainer. Or else you could go for a bowler like Steyn or Harris, who have amazing figures. How did Clarke get the vote ahead of AB and the bowlers?