Daniel Brigham: Johnson Undeserving Of Award
October 2nd, 2009 by Daniel Brigham in International, middlesex
Mitchell Johnson was named ICC’s World Player of the Year last night at the annual awards ceremony in Johannesburg. He beat off competition from Take That’s Gary Barlow, Jude Law’s former nanny and me. That all seems fair enough, he’s a much better cricketer than all three of us. Lucky for him he wasn’t up against proper players like Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni and Andrew Strauss …
Johnson’s statistics are good – 80 Test wickets in 17 matches, a solid ODI bowling average and a maiden Test hundred. Yet he lost a series for Australia – and a pretty big one, The Ashes. He was the attack-leader but appeared terrified of expectations, allowing England to draw at Cardiff, handing England victory at Lord’s with the sort of bowling that bordered on the yips and, despite improvements at Edgbaston and Headingley, was ineffectual when it counted at The Oval. As for that gormless stare he gives batsmen at the end of his follow-through when he’s trying to look hard, well, he should be stripped of his title just for that.
The other three on the shortlist – Gambhir, Dhoni and Strauss – consistently performed when it mattered, even though two of them had the pressure of captaincy to deal with. The most deserving player, Graeme Smith, led his team to victories in England and Australia and yet didn’t even make the shortlist, let alone the Test Team of the Year.
Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, just 22 but taking five-fors against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa, showed far more ability and fight than Johnson displayed. But he plays for Bangladesh, and who cares about them?
Perhaps even more surprising than Johnson’s award is Stuart Broad’s inclusion in the Test Team of the Year. Really? He’s a good player, and has the attributes to be a great one, but one amazing spell at The Oval does not equal year-long consistency. He has got a much better stare than Johnson though, and that should count for a lot.
Daniel Brigham is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer
Posted in International, middlesex | 9 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Johnson’s 80 wickets are also the most taken by a bowler this past year, so yes, his are quite good stats. He had a devastating tour of South Africa, broke Smith’s hand twice, was the main reason South Africa were defeated at home, and he’s also an excellent fielder and a genuine batsman. He may have had a lousy Ashes, but hey! cricket doesn’t begin and end with the Ashes, you know. He is the most complete cricketer of the the nominees.
To suggest Johnson showed little ability or fight is absurd, and just shows up Cricinfo’s poor standards if you are the assistant editor, or your own bias.
(Broad is a laugh- what stare? He’s just handing out his eyelashes to dry out the mascara!)
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Steve, Cricket doesn’t begin and end with the Ashes, but it is a 5-Test series that he was expected to bully but ended up contributing massively to Australia’s defeat because he bottled it – hardly the sign of a world player of the year.
You could not say that about any of the others on the shortlist.
He was fearsome in South Africa – unplayable at times – but that’s one good tour.
And I’m not assistant editor of cricinfo. I’m assistant editor of the wisden cricketer …
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
WHat rubbish! Johnson did not “massively contribute” to Australia’s defeat. YOu could argue many reasons why we lost – selectors, batting collapses, poor captaining at times, but in the end, he is one player. One player doesn’t cause a series loss, unless he is the captain.
Just as Strauss didn’t win the Ashes. He was pretty ordinary much of the time, and dreadful at others. He’s a good batsman, nothing much more. Without Flintoff’s presence in the last match, you would not have won.
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Johnson’s awful bowling at Lord’s set up England’s win, his terrible bowling at Cardiff let England draw a match they should have lost and he was completely unable to do anything at The Oval.
And for someone who was ‘pretty ordinary much of the time, and dreadful at others’, Strauss did pretty well to score the most runs in the series. And he fell to Johnson only once.
As for Freddie at The Oval, it was probably his worst Test for England. England didn’t win because of his presence, they won because of a great spell by Broad, two fifties from Strauss and a hundred from Trott. Seems a long time ago now though.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
I dont know whether either one of you guys saw Mitchell Johnson bowling and Batting in India back in November 08
He averaged 13.40 with the bat over 4 tests .
He Averaged 40.07 with the ball .
The way he played then , it was very obvious that he was NOT the best cricketer in the world for 2008….
There is a world outside South Africa , England and Australia.
Michell Johnson is not the world’s best cricketer. He is a cross seam bowler and a hitter of Medium pace.
He cant face spin or Swing bowling
And Blue Steel does not scare any batsman in the world
Has everyone forgotten that AB De villiers scored a double century in India , then went on to win the series with his bat in Australia……
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I have never heard of one player being blamed so much for a series loss.
Incredible. He deserves the award on the basis that most English and Aussie fans seem to think he is that powerful.
I didn’t realise that his middle name is Dumbledore.
If Shane Warne couldn’t drag the Aussies across the line in 2005…
October 4th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Don’t know why so much was expected of him in england. It’s not his fault the media pumped his tyres up. He’s more Lee than Mcgrath in that he can lose you games as well as win them.
October 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Speaking as an Aussie, cricket does begin and end with the Ashes in our eyes.
Strauss was on the money when he quipped that “When we were bad we were really bad, when we were good we were good enough” the standard of cricket played in the Ashes this year wasn’t all that high aside from the occasionally stellar performance which didn’t seem to be backed up in the following game.
I saw AB De Villiers bat in Australia last tour and he tore us to ribbons, fielded as if he has arildyte on his palms and then ensured to shortest test career we’re likely to see by belting Bryce McGain back to Victoria 14 times.
Johnson was amazing over that series though, Graeme Smith is probably still having nightmares about him.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:19 am
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