Thursday 3 January 2013 16:01, UK
Who was the best cricketer of 2012? Sky Sports News has narrowed the short-list down to 10 players - and now it's time to have your say on our poll on skysports.com.
GRAEME SWANN (59 Test wickets for England in 2012 at 29.93):
"You need somebody in there to relax everybody and that's what Swann does. But when it gets to serious-time and cricket-time, he gives you a lot of experience. He understands his action, he spins the ball. Can we imagine that an English spinner can out-spin India's spinners in their conditions? Well, he did. Along with Panesar, he was one of the best bowlers in the series. It's fantastic for England that we've got spinners, but what we want is spinners who can do it in all continents and that's what he does well. He and Panesar work well as a pairing and that's why England will be No 1 in the world again."
"He's been extraordinary. I've seen Dominic Cork's five bowlers but my five batsmen are going to put them to the sword, with Amla - a man whose bat is almost as wide as his beard - at the forefront. He scored 31no1 at the Oval against England; his Test record is extraordinary - he's scored over 1,000 runs averaging in excess of 70, with four hundreds including that triple. There are a couple of fifties in there to boot. He's also the third-ranked Test batsman in the world but also the top-ranked one-day international batsman; he's scored 678 runs in the one-day game this year at an average of over 84 with two hundreds and four fifties. He's an extraordinary player who just goes on and on; he's very wristy, very languid and he's got an incredible temperament and appetite for runs."
MICHAEL CLARKE (1,595 Test runs for Australia in 2012 at 106.33): 
"Like Alastair Cook, Michael Clarke has taken the burden of captaincy on and thrived. He scored a triple hundred against India at the beginning of the year. Clarke's got five hundreds - three of them have been doubles, one of them has been a triple and he's averaged 106 in Test cricket. It has been an absolutely extraordinary season. He's just so strong. He does struggle with one or two niggles - his back is always plaguing him - but I think that as we build towards the Ashes this summer, the head-to-head between Clarke and Cook is going to be fascinating."
ALASTAIR COOK (1,249 Test runs for England in 2012 at 48.03): 
"Credit to the England set-up; the succession planning means that it has been very much a case of evolution, not revolution after Andrew Strauss ducked out at the right time. Cook is in his prime now; at 28 years of age, he should go on and on. He had this incredible record where he had five hundreds in five Tests as captain. He got a couple of poor decisions in Nagpur, otherwise he might have continued. He's incredibly tough mentally. This will be a tough series out in India, but he's risen to every challenge that's been thrown at him. He is a batting machine - he's England's Amla."
VIRAT KOHLI (689 Test runs for India in 2012 at 49.21): 
"He's had an extraordinary year, particularly in the one-day game where he's averaged just over 60 with five hundreds. He's very much the new kid on the block and we can expect him to dominate for the next 10-15 years. Sachin Tendulkar is towards the end of his career and we've seen the likes of Rahul Dravid retire; this is the new generation and very much typifies how India have put one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket to the forefront. Kohli has only played 14 Test matches but he's played 91 ODIs. England will see a lot of Kohli over the next month!"
KUMAR SANGAKKARA (767 Test runs for Sri Lanka in 2012 at 51.13): 
"He has been as consistent as always; he's a lovely man, a very intelligent man - a senior statesman. He has played 115 Tests and 337 ODIs and scored over 10,000 runs in both. This year he averages over 50 in Test cricket with a couple of hundreds and three fifties and he's the leading run-scorer in ODI cricket in 2012 with nearly 1,200 runs averaging towards the mid-forties with three hundreds and six fifties. Don't forget that he's kept wicket for a lot of those games as well. We think of Adam Gilchrist as possibly being the best wicketkeeper-batsman of the modern generation, but Kumar Sangakkara is not too far behind."
* Statistics right as of January 3 2012
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