Scrap tour of Zimbabwe, urges Wisden

"And I believe the wretched tyranny that is Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is now across that line and that no team should tour there."

According to the ICC, fears over safety and security should be the only grounds for cancelling a tour.

Rubbish, says Wisden, which continues to have a worldwide readership and has never been slow to question the wisdom of those who run the game.

"Of course, morality has a legitimate role to play in deciding whether or not a cricket tour can take place," writes the editor. "Any contrary argument is contemptible, especially in a game that went through the decades of torment caused by apartheid."

It is debatable whether Engel's conclusion will cause even a moment's doubt among those leaders of cricket who have already made up their minds. But it will be there, in black and white, long after they've left the sport - and it reads: "If sanctions are invoked against England for refusing to tour such a country, it will be the majority, not the minority, who will have earned themselves the contempt of thoughtful individuals across the globe."

Wisden, of course, is not beyond criticism itself. Last year's edition upset many traditionalists by using a picture on the front cover for the first time.

Then it was Michael Vaughan. This time it features the faces of two Australians - new skipper Ricky Ponting and outgoing leader Steve Waugh.

If any pictures were to be used on the front of the book then they had to be of those two all-conquering captains.

Wisden picks five cricketers of the year, the sole drawback being that a player can only be chosen once (this year's additions to the hall of fame are Englishmen Andrew Flintoff and Chris Adams, South Africans Graeme Smith and Gary Kirsten and Australian Ian Harvey).

Engel has decided, however-that as of now Wisden will select its 40 leading performers of the year.

Ponting, who guided Australia to World Cup glory in South Africa, is Wisden's player of 2003, followed - but not in any order - by 13 more Australians, seven South Africans, five Indians, four Pakistanis, three Englishmen and three Sri Lankans, two New Zealanders and one player from both West Indies and Zimbabwe.