And then there were four. Simon Harmer has done it seven times. Glenn Maxwell has done it five times. This week Callum Ferguson was the 20th player in our 24 player list to win Cricketer of the Week. This then leaves a rather surprising quartet of players who have not topped the weekly list in 2019 - Jos Buttler, Jack Leach and Morne Morkel (a trio we will hear from later) and Kane Williamson - who has never topped the weekly list since we started this in January 2018. Ferguson rightfully deserves his place at the top of the tree this week. To score one century in a week is an achievement; to score two is a rarity. Ferguson's 249 runs in a calendar week has seen him moving up all kinds of tables. He is now the third highest run scorer in this year's Marsh Cup and is now South Australia's all-time leading one day run scorer. His 349 points have also seen him jump a near unprecedented four places on our overall list to finish this week in 16th. With our focus being on the moveable feast at the top of the list, it is easy to miss the fact that places 15 to 20 have just 157 points between them and lot of the movers and shakers in the weekly list come from the lower half of the pack list. Very few places are guaranteed this year.
I have been a little disappointed with Jos Buttler this year. He was a regular feature in the top ten last year and finished 2018 in fifth with 4846 points. This year he has not bothered the top ten and - with six weeks left in the year - is 1815 points off his 2018 total and in a distant twelfth position. His century this week against a New Zealand A side is signs of an upturn in his fortunes but it is indicative that his 190 for the week is the highest score since the ODI series against Pakistan in May - completely bypassing the World Cup and The Ashes. Two memorable stars of the Headingley Test Match have also used the New Zealand A warm up to make a move up the list. Jack Leach, another one of those players to never top the weekly list, has been stuck in the bottom third of the list all season but overhauled Shubman Gill and Morne Morkel this week to move up to 18th. Two weeks ago Ben Stokes was the bottom of the pile in that tightly stacked peloton of players chasing the top 3, however his 173 over the last fortnight has now seen him overtake Joe Root - a man who has long been in the top five but is now sliding down the table at just the wrong time. With a lot of England cricket on the horizon, some of the English boys on our list could force their agenda in the dying embers of the year.
It's been a really disappointing year for Morne Morkel. Last year, Morkel's 59 wickets for Surrey was the second highest in the division and would have earned him 1180 points on wickets alone were he included on our 2018 list. This year he got just 44 - a drop of 300 points. If you compare Morkel's nineteenth position on the overall list to his fellow County Championship stalwarts, in the form of second placed Simon Harmer and third placed Jeetan Patel, you can see just how far off the pace the ex-South African international really is. This week he was overtaken by Jack Leach - which really brings to bear the fact that spinners really are prevailing at the moment, whilst their fats bowling brethren appear to be left in the dust - maybe something that needs to be kept in mind when the 2020 list of players is compiled. This being said, Morkel did move up one place this week - his two wickets for Tshwane against Paarl was enough to see him past the inactive Shubman Gill- however with a handful of games left in 2019 hopes are not high for any further progression.
Week
Callum Ferguson - 349
Jos Buttler - 190
Shai Hope - 178
Jack Leach - 102
Rashid Khan - 98
Ben Stokes - 93
Duanne Olivier - 80
Jeetan Patel - 76
Morne Morkel - 60
Shreyas Iyer - 47
Joe Root - 32
Simon Harmer - 10
Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Jonny Bairstow - dnp
Joe Burns - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp
Overall
Glenn Maxwell - 5712
Simon Harmer - 5115
Jeetan Patel - 4461
Rashid Khan - 4012
Virat Kohli- 3901
Ben Stokes - 3879
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Joe Root- 3852
Rohit Sharma - 3747
Jonny Bairstow - 3725
Shreyas Iyer - 3343
Jos Buttler - 3031
Duanne Olivier - 2961
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Shai Hope - 2616
Callum Ferguson - 2567
Kane Williamson - 2524
Jack Leach - 2500
Morne Morkel - 2498
Shubman Gill - 2459
Mohammad Abbas - 2039
Abdur Razzak- 1925
Kuldeep Yadav - 1760
Joe Burns - 1472
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