Surrey CCC have renewed the Club’s partnership with the Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year competition – with all shortlisted entries once again set to be displayed at The Kia Oval.
The 10 photographs will be exhibited in the Club shop on the ground floor of the M.A.R. Galadari Stand, finding an audience of hundreds of thousands of cricket fans over the course of 2023’s epic summer of cricket in south London.
Matthew Lewis’s photo of Nottinghamshire players and coaching staff caught in a Trent Bridge blizzard was today announced as the winner of the Wisden Photograph of the Year competition by an expert panel made up of Chris Smith, chair of the panel and former chief sports photographer of The Sunday Times; acclaimed cricket photographer Patrick Eagar; former art director of The Cricketer Nigel Davies and former MCC filming and photography manager Clare Adams.
Lewis, who is the first to claim the award twice, after winning in 2014, has been a professional photographer for more than 20 years; he was working for Getty Images when he took the picture.
“It’s a real honour to win the Wisden Photograph of the Year,” said Lewis. “The competition means so much to me, having been a previous winner and runner-up. It was a bright spring morning for the pre-season photocall, though we knew snow was possible. And, just as everyone had got into position, it began. I think the expressions on their faces – especially Stuart Broad’s – sums it all up!”
The runners-up are:
- Phil Hillyard’s black-and-white image of groundstaff removing covers at 6.30 on a gloomy morning during the Fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 6, 2022.
- Philip Brown’s photograph of South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj airborne at full stretch in a valiant attempt to catch Alex Lees of England, during the Third Test between England and South Africa at The Kia Oval on September 11, 2022.
There are also three new prizes for amateurs, provided by the competition’s supporting partner MPB – the online platform for used photography and videography equipment. The best image by an amateur was taken by Elysa Hubbard, who wins a £300 MPB voucher. The runners-up, Pratik Shetty and Sowrav Das, each win a £100 MPB voucher. The 2022 competition attracted almost 500 entries from around the world.
