Rashid Khan - The Best Cricketer of the Week

In order to succeed in our list you need to run like a train; regular, persistent and accurate. Last year Rashid Khan was working like a train that Mussolini would have been proud of. Five Cricketer of the Week awards were spread throughout the year as the Afghanistani sensation travelled the world dazzling his opponents. This year Rashid's gravy train has rather dried up. This week has seen a revival back to something like his best form however it is too little and too late to call this anything close to a success but it does lend us a glimpse of what used to be. This is most evident in his second to last game of the season where he excelled with bat and ball and achieved something that eluded him throughout 2019 - points for his economy. Throughout 2018, Rashid would more often than not couple regular wickets with strangling economy; this has not been the case this year however, raging against the dying of the light, he has shown us a glimpse of what used to be. His 271 points this week makes him one of two players to overtake Rohit Sharma to settle in 6th place for the season - overtaking Stokes in the very last game of the season. When he walked out at number 7 he needed 15 runs to haul Stokes in. He took just nine balls to reach that landmark - eventually out for an eighteen ball 40. As the Rashid express draws out of the station, it is not behind the realms of possibility we may see him in the 2021 list. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

The year has been won by Glenn Maxwell. And nobody would begrudge him the victory. The Australian has been leading our overall List since Week 9 and has done so representing Australia, Lancashire and Melbourne Renegades. For a player to have been so dominant throughout a year without having to resort to hit-and-hope T20 competitions is impressive indeed. His lead of 895 points ahead of Simon Harmer has been hovering over the 1000 point mark since the Summer, however once seemed in threat. When Maxwell announced that he was stepping away from cricket for an indeterminate period of time, his lead on the South African was 738. With the Mzansi Super League about to swing into action, many expected Simon Harmer to be destructive for his Johannesburg outfit much as he was last year. This failed to come to pass as both Harmer and his franchise looked stilted throughout the competition eventually leading to Harmer being dropped from the team that he used to captain. The closest he managed to get to our runaway leader was 597 points just prior to his deselection. When Maxwell returned to his own home T20 competition and The Big Show proved he was still worth the admission fee, it truly was game over. A well deserved winner and another strong contender in 2020 - after all, it is a T20 World Cup year.

Several of our Cricketers have leapt away from their previous position this week as if they were bachelors just before the stroke of midnight, leaping away from their less favoured partners and towards more appealing options before the stroke of midnight. Rashid was just one of six Cricketers to move up the overall list. Most significantly so was Ben Stokes, who yet again was the stand out performer in an under strength England side and managed to accrue 226 points across a warm up game and the first Test against South Africa. Not good enough to lead his team to another miraculous victory but enough to see him overtake Rohit Sharma to take 6th position in his first year on our list. He was not the only Englishman to manoeuvre an Indian out of position just before the final reckoning. Bairstow has had a poor year with only a strong IPL outing being something for the Yorkshireman to hang his hat on. There is a clamour for the Englishman to be given a spell away from the national side - something that was in the offing before the sickness bug debilitated the squad - and his nine runs has not changed many people's minds. It was, however, just enough for him to pip Shreyas Iyer, who himself had a disappointing week comprising of just 7 runs against West Indies. It is not all doom and gloom for our Indian contingent as two of their number also made an upward move this week. Shubman Gill's hundred for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy saw him leap three places and finish 16th in our 24 man list. Kuldeep Yadav's year has been a disappointment and this week is no different. The Indian spinner added just 10 points to his total from the final ODI against the West Indies however this was enough to see him overtake Abdur Razzak and finish 21st for the year. The other mover was Callum Ferguson whose strong second half to the season sees him finish 14th.

Week

Rashid Khan - 351
Ben Stokes - 226
Mohammad Abbas - 190
Glenn Maxwell - 155
Shubman Gill - 140
Jos Buttler - 126
Virat Kohli - 125
Joe Root - 119
Callum Ferguson - 102
Jonny Bairstow - 98
Rohit Sharma - 83
Shai Hope - 72
Joe Burns - 55
Kane Williamson - 19
Kuldeep Yadav - 10
Shreyas Iyer - 7

Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Morne Morkel- dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Abdur Razzak- dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 6010
Simon Harmer - 5115
Jeetan Patel - 4813
Virat Kohli- 4554
Joe Root- 4542
Rashid Khan - 4475
Ben Stokes - 4410
Rohit Sharma - 4308
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Jonny Bairstow - 3836
Shreyas Iyer - 3796
Jos Buttler - 3245
Duanne Olivier - 3021
Callum Ferguson - 2999
Shai Hope - 2991
Shubman Gill - 2838
Kane Williamson - 2810
Morne Morkel - 2760
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Jack Leach - 2598
Mohammad Abbas - 2339
Kuldeep Yadav - 1930
Abdur Razzak- 1925
Joe Burns - 1750

Ben Stokes - The Best Cricketer of the Week

A good year sees a player perform well over a short period of time. Amazing years are where a player performs well all throughout the year. This is the third time Ben Stokes has finished as Cricketer of the Week. The first was in February when he was the stand out performer in a poor series against the West Indies. The second was that wondrous Headingley performance in May. Now, as his home nation is shrouded in ice and darkness, he has bookended his spectacular year with another high quality performance. It does seem rather ironic that on the three occasions that Stokes has finished top of the tree it has been for performing above expectations in a disappointing team performance - and this week was no exception. A humiliating innings defeat to New Zealand where the England bowling line up looked (at best) toothless and (definitely) brainless saw Stokes get 219 points - 63% of which were for his batting performance. He was, by some distance, the highest run scorer in the first innings and stopped the game from being even worse than it could have been. Stokes' highest weekly score since Headingley was enough to see him back into the top five; muscling Virat Kohli - who scored a century himself this week - into sixth. Stokes' team-mate and captain Joe Root rounds off the movement at the top of the table as his disappointing score of 63 was enough to see him overtake Shakib Al Hasan and take seventh spot.

There was also a hell of a lot of movement down at the bottom of the table. Last week places sixteen to twenty read: Callum Ferguson, Kane Williamson, Jack Leach, Morne Morkel and Shubman Gill. Over the course of this week, that has completely turned on it's head. After finishing top of the List last week, Callum Ferguson may regret his week off as he drops from 16th to 20th. The other player descending was Kane Williamson who drops from 17th to an all-time low of 19th - despite the fact that he scored points for the first time in a month. The two players to take advantage of this reshuffle were Morne Morkel and Shubman Gill who executed a switcheroo with their antipodean brethren. Shubman Gill did not set the world alight in two of his three Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games, however got 78 in the final game of the week against Mumbai to help him grab a total of 161 for the week and move from 20th to 17th. Surprisingly Morne Morkel has also used a T20 tournament to boost his score. More of a doyenne of the red ball, the veteran South Africa got five wickets in two games for Tshwane to register his highest score since September and move from 19th up to sixteenth. As we enter the last month of this year's Cricket List, it is as tight at the bottom as it is at the top. Just 179 points separate Wayne Parnell in sixteenth and Callum Ferguson in twentieth. It is all to play for.......unless you are Mohammad Abbas, Abdur Razzak or Joe Burns.

A glint of hope is opening up for Glenn Maxwell. When he revealed his mental health problems and his intention to step away from the game for an indeterminate period of time, he received an outpouring of support both within and outside the game. At the time he was top of the list and 738 points clear of Simon Harmer. Many expected the chasing pack to catch up with the Australian but, four weeks later, Maxwell is still numero uno and with a cushion of just 597 points. The usually unstoppable Simon Harmer has looked distinctly stoppable in that time and his total of just 141 from his five MSL games leaves a lot to be desired. This was clearly a sentiment also shared by Donovan Miller, who has this week dropped the ex-captain from his team. With the Johannesburg side rooted to the bottom of the table, Simon Harmer is likely to have just three more games in him this year. If Simon Harmer is out of the running we should turn our attention to the rest of the pack. Third place Jeetan Patel will be playing all month for Wellington but he is 1062 points behind Maxwell. It is feasible Patel might overtake Harmer but he will have to go some to take top spot. The next highest placed player is Rashid Khan who is 1578 points off the Australian - an impossibly high amount of points to overturn. It is starting to seem that Maxwell has built up such an impressive lead that, despite two months inactive, he will be crowned the winner of The Cricket List 2019 after all.

Week

Ben Stokes - 219
Shreyas Iyer - 199
Virat Kohli - 196
Jeetan Patel - 189
Shubman Gill - 161
Morne Morkel - 150
Joe Burns - 137
Rashid Khan - 112
Jack Leach - 98
Kane Williamson - 71
Joe Root - 63
Duanne Olivier- 60
Jos Buttler - 53
Shai Hope - 43
Rohit Sharma - 31

Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Jonny Bairstow- dnp
Callum Ferguson - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 5712
Simon Harmer - 5115
Jeetan Patel - 4650
Rashid Khan - 4124
Ben Stokes - 4098
Virat Kohli- 4097
Joe Root- 3915
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Rohit Sharma - 3796
Jonny Bairstow - 3725
Shreyas Iyer - 3542
Jos Buttler - 3084
Duanne Olivier - 3021
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Shai Hope - 2659
Morne Morkel - 2648
Shubman Gill - 2620
Jack Leach - 2598
Kane Williamson - 2595
Callum Ferguson - 2567
Mohammad Abbas - 2039
Abdur Razzak- 1925
Kuldeep Yadav - 1760
Joe Burns - 1609

Nathan Lyon - The Best Cricketer of the Week

When looking back over the last week's cricketing action it has made very clear the schizophrenic nature of our great game. Oftentimes the casual observer of our beloved game finds the different variants of the sport a mystery and does not understand the distinctions needed of both the observer and the participant. From those in the inner circle it is all too common for them to look down on certain forms of the game and heap praise on the others. This week there have been three very different type of contests being played out across the world that typify this problem. Further more the leading point scorer in each one of these disciplines further typifies the different styles of players we see in the modern game.

A quarter of our players were playing in good old fashioned long form cricket - four in the Sheffield Shield and a further two in Tests, that grandest of cricketing traditions. Cricketing purists who put this form of cricket on a pedestal will also be overjoyed to hear that five of the top six performers this week were participating in these games. Our top point scorer for the week was Nathan Lyon. A player fully dedicated to his nation's plight. A player who drops out of T20 tournaments in order to ensure his fitness for his national team. This is a level of elite honesty that Australian can only dream of in the post-Sandpapergate era. This week he churned out a nine wicket haul for New South Wales against Queensland. Lyon is a pin up boy for the long form cricket purist. A former groundsman who tenaciously plugged away at his game until he has become (statistically speaking) the best spinner Australia have ever seen. He ticks all the boxes that a Test cricket fan likes. Tenacity. An appealing backstory. A streak of classically Australian pugnacity. He has it all. He has now got the Australians to have a run against and, on current form, might be able to do a lot of damage. He is joined at the top of the table by the equally tenacious Shaun Marsh, whose late November spurt continues, and the indefatigable Shakib Al Hasan. 

This month has seen the launch of the Mzansi Super League and in an era where not all T20 franchise tournaments are created equal - this one has something close to a heart attached to it. The games have been of the highest quality and an almost perfect mix of domestic South African domestic players, South African international stars and international players have turned out so that all are levels of interest are catered for. The only South African player that is not participating is the injured JP Duminy and it is Mr Consistency himself, Quinton De Kock, that is the MSL's top point scorer this week. A good T20 league should raise the profile of one of that country's best players. We have seen it with Jasprit Bumrah in the IPL and with Pat Brown in the T20 Blast. QDK is clearly more renowned than that but in a year where he would rightfully feel rather overshadowed he is using this fledgling tournament to get back to his best. His 74 from 36 balls in yesterday's game against Jozi was a batting tour de force and his Cape Town team are very much in the driving seat with a 100% win ratio. His 170 points this week sees him overtake JP Duminy and become the highest ranked South African on our overall list. 

Anybody that has been keeping an eye on the T10 league can't help but enjoy it....but we need to question it's validity. A tournament where a 47 year old gets 4 wickets in 5 deliveries has question marks seeping out of every crack in the pitch. I have tried to write this section without showing any bias but it really is a struggle. Thee of our players are featuring in this money fuelled jaunt: Jofra Archer Rashid Khan and Sunil Narine. Archer and Khan are young. They need money. We can forgive them but there is something irritatingly inevitable about Narine's involvement. He is inevitably present. He is inevitably performing the best out of the trio. He is inevitably getting paid through the nose. Those last two points are inevitably linked. The spinner, who has turned his back on the West Indies set up long before his thirtieth birthday, is the most mercenary of all the mercenary Cricketers. This being said he has not done badly for himself this year. He represents one of the four players in our overall top ten who do not represent their national team but is the only one who has not bolstered their points with an extended spell in the County Championship. The player, if selected, may continue this into 2019. He confirmed his involvement in the PSL this week and will, again inevitably, turn up to the IPL and put himself in the shop window yet again for another year of globe-trotting and money grabbing.

Week

Nathan Lyon - 350
Shaun Marsh- 254
Shakib Al Hasan - 230
Quinton De Kock- 170
Mitchell Marsh- 170
Kane Williamson - 140
Simon Harmer -114
Sunil Narine - 105
Jofra Archer - 90
AB De Villiers- 82
Hashim Amla - 71
Aaron Finch - 57
Rashid Khan - 31 
George Bailey - 28
Dean Elgar- 9 
Virat Kohli - 4
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
JP Duminy - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja - dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 6944
Rashid Khan - 5586
Jeetan Patel - 5311
Jos Buttler - 4424
Virat Kohli- 4373
Jofra Archer - 4303
Joe Root - 4127
Sunil Narine- 4043
Aaron Finch - 3864
Kane Williamson - 3684
Ravi Ashwin - 3370
Nathan Lyon - 3326
Ravi Jadeja - 3263
Shakib Al Hasan - 3106
Mitchell Marsh - 2663
Quinton de Kock - 2519
JP Duminy - 2496
Shaun Marsh- 2356
Dean Elgar- 2293
AB De Villiers- 2191
Hashim Amla - 2162
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 1115