"BULLY" for Lancashire ... and for England is a new book from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1999, £28.00 ISBN 0 947 76650 2.

Affectionately known as "Bully" to his team-mates and many admiring supporters, Ian Austin has been plying his trade with enthusiasm for Lancashire for more than 10 years.

But in 1998 he was selected for another team - England - and it was an honour that justifiably came to a player who has been described by Pakistan's Wasim Akram as: "the best death bowler I have ever seen."

His performances for his country were moderate but they did not prevent Wisden editor Matthew Engel selecting him as one of the Five Cricketers of the Year, so Austin found himself in such exalted company as Darren Gough, Jonty Rhodes, Muttiah Muralitheran and Arjuna Ranatunga.

Justifying his choice Engel comments: "The current generation of cricketers is the most anonymous in history," pointing out that Ian Austin is an exception and that "there ought to be dozens like him but there aren't" and finally explains: "That's why he is a Cricketer of the Year."

As well as the chosen five, Wisden generates many other talking points.

Paul Allot analyses the speedometer summer of 1998, Mihir Bose discusses the great bribery scandal involving Australian and Pakistani cricketers and Peter Roebuck looks at Graham Hick's career since the mammoth 405 that he made against Somerset at Taunton.

Added to all this there is the full range of statistics, match summaries, obituaries and much more to keep the Cricket aficionado amused during the long summer and beyond.

Finally, Ian Austin is also nicknamed 'Oscar' so let us hope that after the current World Cup is over he can, like another Oscar of that ilk, Wilde, state: "I have nothing to declare but my genius"!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.