Following the success of the inaugural Wisden – MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year, in association with Park Cameras, competition in 2010, the two organisations have joined forces once more in a bid to find the best cricket image from the current calendar year.
Last year over 200 entries were received from across the world, with New Zealand’s Scott Barbour emerging as the eventual winner. Barbour’s arresting photograph depicted James Anderson and the rest of the England team celebrating the wicket of Brad Haddin during the Adelaide Ashes Test in a perfect ‘v’ formation.
Other entries focused on different aspects of the game, with examples ranging from Indian photographer Supriya Biswas’s image of children playing cricket in Kolkata, to Paul Kane’s striking snapshot of young cricketers playing on a beach as the sun sets on the horizon.
In 2011 the winning images will be chosen by a panel of independent expert judges appointed by Wisden and MCC, and headed by the former Chief Sports Photographer for The Sunday Times, Chris Smith.
The judges will draw up a shortlist of 11 entries, from which a winner and two runners-up will be selected. All of the shortlisted photographs will be exhibited at Lord’s throughout next year, and the top three will feature in the colour section of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2012.
The competition is open to all photographers – amateur and professional – from across the world, and the only stipulations are that entries must have been taken during 2011 and in some respect have a cricket theme.
Wisden and MCC plan to run this annual competition in perpetuity, so all entrants can take pleasure from knowing that their efforts will contribute to an ever-growing Cricket Photograph of the Year archive which, when reviewed in the long term, will document the ever changing face of cricket.
Editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, Lawrence Booth, said: “We’re delighted to be able to continue our relationship with MCC in search of the world’s best cricket photographs.
“The standard of entries in the first year of the competition was breathtaking, and we’re looking forward to more of the same from the 2011 batch.”
Prizes
• The prize for the winning photograph is £500 cash, plus a £500 Park Cameras voucher for Canon equipment.
• Two runners-up will each receive £250 cash, plus a £400 Park Cameras voucher for Canon equipment.
• Eight other shortlisted entries will each receive £50 cash, plus a £150 Park Cameras voucher for Canon equipment
Enter the competition here and good luck!