Review - "Fletcher must go " - Wisden

The 144th edition of the Almanack, published this week, praises Fletcher's leadership over the past seven years but adds: "It is time for renewal, and there can be no renewal without change at the top."

Writing cricket's traditional annual sermon, Notes by the Editor, Matthew Engel looks back on the 2006/7 Ashes and concludes: "The fact of losing was no disgrace: it is 36 years now since England last won an away series against a full-strength Australian side.

"The manner of it was disgraceful. England were at once worn out but under-prepared; complacent yet over-apprehensive; inward-looking yet dysfunctional as a unit; closested yet distracted."

Engel says the "England bubble", in which Fletcher protected his players against outside distractions, had helped create the conditions for the team's earlier triumphs: "But there are problems living inside a bubble. Eventually the oxygen runs out.

"And if this one began as the Eden Project, it turned this winter into something like the Big Brother house. Accurate information rarely seeped out: it also stopped seeping in. Even experts have to keep listening and learning.; Fletcher, on the evidence of the 2006-7 Ashes, just stopped."

Urns and tattoos Engel aslo calls for the Ashes urn to be displayed in the winning country - even though it puts him on the same side as the "blathering" Sir Richard Branson.

Engel says the MMC's argument that the urn was too fragile to move from country to country had been destroyed by its tour of Australian cities this winter, when it had ot make eight seperate flights.

"Had it physically moved on every occasion it notionally changed hands, it would only have made 10 flights in 75 years." Wisden first called for this change 12 years ago. "It's an idea whose team will come," he adds.

In the usual wide-ranging Notes, Engel touches on John Betjeman, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and "incomprehensible" scoreboards. He says the English counties' system of signing "Kolpak" players from overseas is engdangering South African cricket.

And he also attacks England stars Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff for displaying their tattos, this inevitably encouraging young admirers to imitate them.

"I think that if sporting heroes wish to indulge in this form of self-mutilation, they should have the decency not to advertise the fact."

Murali the world's No 1 Wisden 2007 names the Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan at the No. 1 cricket on earth for 2006.

Muralitharan becames the fourth player to win the accolade of "Leading Cricket in the World" since it was insugurated.

Previous winners were Australians Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne and - a year ago - Andrew Flintoff of England.

It is possible to be named twice and Engel says both Ponting and Warne were contenders this time, along with Pakistani batsman Mohammed Yousuf.

"But is a batsman's game," he says, "which makes the exceptions very compelling indeed."

In a run of six Test, Muralitharan took 60 wickets last year.

In his article celebrating the new No. 1, Simon Barnes attacks Murali's critics: "They are a familiar type of sneerers and begruders, the pusillanimous possessors of small minds and large opinions. Muralitharan is a truly great cricketer, and those that cannot go along with such a sentiment have something lacking in their souls. The spirit of cricket, perhaps."

Murali does not make the cover of the Almanack, though. Shane Warne (who shared top billing in 2006 with Andrew Flintoff) has the front of the book to himself.

"The cover picture and the Leading Cricketer award aren't necessarily connected,"Engel explains. "The heart of this year's Wisden is the dramatic tale of the Ashes and Warne's last hurrah. It's a great picture and conveys the year's biggest cricketing story."

..but he can't match Bradman The new Wisden takes the Leading Cricketer award a step further and considers what might have been had it been invted more than a century earlier. A panel of 16 writers and historians from all the cricketing contintents researched the years back to 1900. After a lively debate (including a shouting match in Adelaide wine bar), a name emerged for each year.

With no ban on repeat winners, an extraorinary coincidence emerged. Only five players won the title more than twice: Don Bradman (ten times), Gary Sobers (eight) and Jack Hobbs, Viv Richards and Shane Warne (three times each).

These were the same five who were named as the Cricketers of the 20th Century by a Wisden panel seven years ago. A full list is on pages 35-40 of the new Almanack.

Monty makes the Five Three Englishmen, a Sri Lankan and a Pakistani have received Wisden's oldest accolade, and been named the Five Cricketers of the Year.

Paul Collingwood, Monty Panesar and Mark Ramprakash were chosen alongside Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene and the Pakistani run machine Mohammed Yousuf.

All were chosen on the traditional criterion: "influence on the English season."

Jaywardene led a striking Sri Lankan fightback in their Test series against England: Yousuf, with 631 runs in four Tests, saved Pakistan from complete disaster in theirs: Collingwood and Panesar established themselves as England matchwinners, while Ramprakash, aged 36, had an astonishing summer for Surrey, scoring 2,278 runs at an average of 103.54 - just before Strictly Come Dancing.

This year's contibutors to the Almanack include luminaries such as Mike Atherton, Michael Parkinson, John Woodcock, Clement Freud and Tony Cozier to name just a handful.

Hopefully this has given you a taste of the world's greatest cricket, if not sports, book.

Available from all good booksellers or go to: www.wisden.com

The recommended retail price is £40 for the hardback issue, but there is a £10 off offer on the Cricinfo website.