ESPNcricinfo
Ben Stokes has been named as the leading cricketer in the world for a second consecutive year in the 2021 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which is published on April 15.
Stokes amassed 641 Test runs at 58.27 for the calendar year, which was more than anyone else, while his 19 wickets cost just 18.73 runs apiece.
The honour comes after Stokes was named leading cricketer in the world in the 2020 edition, having guided England to their maiden World Cup title in 2019 and then producing one of the great Test innings to defeat Australia in the Ashes Test at Headingley. In doing so, Stokes ended a three-year run for India's Virat Kohli in winning the award and became the first English player since Andrew Flintoff in 2005 to be regarded as the best contemporary player in the world.
"Ben Stokes becomes the first England player to be named Wisden's Leading Cricketer in the World more than once, retaining the title he claimed in 2020," said Wisden's editor, Lawrence Booth. "He did it all against a backdrop of personal tragedy: his father, Ged, died in December at the age of 65."
Darren Stevens, the Kent allrounder, was named as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year at the age of 44, the fourth-oldest on record, after a standout performance in the Bob Willis Trophy. Players are chosen by the editor with "excellence in, or influence on, the previous English summer" the main criteria, and cannot be chosen more than once in their career.
Zak Crawley, Stevens' county team-mate, was another Cricketer of the Year after his feats for England. Crawley scored 267 against Pakistan in the third Test at the Ageas Bowl, a knock bettered only once by an England No. 3, when Walter Hammond made 336 not out at Auckland in 1932-33. Crawley also scored centuries against Hampshire in the Bob Willis Trophy and the T20 Blast.