England players Moeen Ali, Gary Ballance and Adam Lyth are among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year for 2014, which were announced today, along with Angelo Mathews and Jeetan Patel.
Kumar Sangakkara is named as Wisden's Leading Cricketer in the World, making him just the second player to regain that annual status after Virender Sehwag.
Sangakkara, set to complete his international retirement when he plays his final Test this year, has raised even his own wonderful standards in a record-breaking run of form.
He made an all-time record 2,868 international runs in 2014, including a triple-century, and had a significant impact on the last English season with his first Test hundred at Lord's.
Wisden breaks new ground by announcing its first Leading Woman Cricketer in the World - Australia's Meg Lanning.
Lanning, who at 21 became the youngest person to captain Australia, led her country to the World Twenty20 title and finished 2014 at the top of both the women's Twenty20 and one-day international batting rankings.
The Five Cricketers of the Year are chosen by the editor of Wisden, currently Lawrence Booth, awarding outstanding achievement in the previous English season.
Moeen, who features on the cover of this year’s Wisden which is published tomorrow, lit up the summer with 12 wickets in the Ageas Bowl and Emirates Old Trafford Investec Tests against India. He finished the series with 19 scalps at an average of 23.
Earlier in the season he had almost saved the Headingley Test with a century versus against Sri Lanka, batting for all bar one ball of the final day.
Ballance began the summer with a century in his first home Test, against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, and followed up with two more versus India – at Lord’s and the Ageas Bowl. By the end of the season he boasted a Test average of over 60.
Yorkshire opening batsman Lyth was the leading run-scorer in the LV= County Championship, with 1,489 runs at an average of 67 and six hundreds, and was one of the pillars of his team’s Division One triumph. He was rewarded with a place on England’s current tour of the Caribbean.
Mathews was the inspiration behind Sri Lanka’s first Test series victory in England. After helping to save the first Test at Lord’s with a century, he made 160 – and took four wickets – as Sri Lanka came from behind to win in Leeds. Mathews also led his team to wins in the Royal London One-Day Series and the one-off NatWest International T20.
New Zealand off-spinner Patel was central to Warwickshire’s success across all three formats. He claimed 107 victims in total, more than anyone in the country, and his 25 wickets in the NatWest T20 Blast – the most in the competition – helped his side lift the trophy on home turf at Edgbaston.