The top pictures from the Wisden Photograph of the Year competition will be on display at The Kia Oval as cricket returns to Kennington tomorrow.
The photographs, including the winning one by Arjun Singh of three Rajasthan Royals players (Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel) colliding as they attempt to catch Gujarat Titans’ batter Wriddhiman Saha in the 2023 Indian Premier League in Ahmedabad, will be on show in the Club Shop for the next 12 months.
Chris Smith, chair of the expert panel of judges and former chief sports photographer of The Sunday Times, said: “This terrific photo brings three players together with one intent: all are totally focused on making the catch. Good photographs often create debate. You wonder if one of them will successfully make the catch. In the event it was none of them! But it scores on another level, as the figures compose so well in what is a deservedly winning photograph.”
Patrick Eagar, also on the panel, said: “One player diving is fairly usual, two make a good photograph, but three! It’s a nice composition and tells an interesting tale. The three Rajasthan players, wicketkeeper, square leg and cover, managed to converge on a top edge from Saha in the first over of the match. Their collision knocked the ball further down the pitch where the bowler, Trent Boult, who is out of the photograph, caught the ball.”
Among the runner-ups were Samiran Chakraborty and Stu Forster. The former clicked a black-and-white image of children playing cricket next to the Turag River in the Katasur area of Mohammadpur, Dhaka, while the latter snapped a photo of the Welsh Fire bowler Claire Nicholas taking a one-handed return catch to dismiss Northern Superchargers batter Phoebe Litchfield during a match in The Hundred at Headingley on August 22.
Alongside being on display at The Kia Oval, the winning entries feature in the 2024 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
The 2023 competition attracted almost 500 entries from around the world. In addition to Chris Smith, the judges were the acclaimed cricket photographer Patrick Eagar, former art director of The Cricketer Nigel Davies, and former MCC filming and photography manager Clare Adams.
