The Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year 2023 Competition is now open for entries.

• Top three entries in this year’s Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year will feature in the 2024 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
• First prize is £1,000, two runners-up each win £400.
• Matthew Lewis won the 2022 competition for his image of Nottinghamshire players and coaching staff caught in a Trent Bridge blizzard.

The 2023 Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year competition is now open for entries. Launched in 2010, the contest is open to all photographers, amateur or professional, from anywhere in the world. 

It remains free to enter. The only stipulations are that images must have a cricketing theme and have been taken during the 2023 calendar year.

The competition aims to promote and sustain cricket in all of its forms in every corner of the globe, from an international match played in front of thousands, to a game between children on the street.

Matthew Lewis won the last year’s competition for his image of Nottinghamshire players and coaching staff caught in a Trent Bridge blizzard. The judges said that it was a “most unusual and humorous picture”. You can see his photograph, along with the two runners-up, here.

The best images in the 2023 competition will appear as the first three colour photographs in the 2024 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. The winner will receive £1,000, and the two runners-up £400 each. 

The three winning images, together with seven shortlisted photographs, will be publicly displayed for up to twelve months in a gallery in the entrance area below the Galadari stand at The Kia Oval cricket ground.

The independent judging panel will be chaired by Chris Smith, former chief sports photographer of The Sunday Times. Also on the panel are the acclaimed cricket photographer Patrick Eagar; filming and photography manager Clare Adams; and Nigel Davies, the former art director of The Wisden Cricketer. 

The editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, Lawrence Booth, said: “It has been another memorable year for cricket, with men’s and women’s world cups and Ashes series. Following the high standard of entries in recent years, we can’t wait to see what the game’s photographers have come up with in 2023.” 

Entries, to a maximum of three per person, must be submitted online at: www.wisden.com/photographoftheyear 

There is no fee for entering. The closing date for entries is 23:59 GMT on Friday January 5, 2024. Winners will be announced in March 2024.

About the Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year:

The Wisden Photograph of the Year was launched in 2010. It is open to all photographers – amateur and professional – from across the world, and the only stipulations are that entries must have been taken during the year of the competition, and in some respect have a cricket theme.

Prizes:

The winning photograph and two runner-up images will be reproduced as the first three images in the colour section of the 2024 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, a copy of which will be provided to each of the top three photographers.

The prize for the winning photograph is £1,000 and a copy of Wisden 2024, plus one-year subscriptions to Wisden Cricket Monthly and The Nightwatchman. Two runners-up each receive £400, and a copy of Wisden 2024, plus one-year subscriptions to Wisden Cricket Monthly and The Nightwatchman.

The 2023 Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year competition will be judged independently by:

Chris Smith (Chairman of the Judging Panel) has been chief sports photographer for various newspapers, including The Sunday Times for over 30 years. During this time he has covered a diverse range of major sports, such as rugby, football, horse racing, athletics, sailing and boxing, as well as cricket. Chris has been British Sports Photographer of the Year four times, and winner of the Sports Picture of the Year award twice.

Patrick Eagar is widely recognised as the doyen of cricket photography. After over 50 years covering the sport, he retired at the end of the 2011 season. During his professional career he photographed 325 Test matches all around the world, and has published 14 books. In 2011, he was awarded the Doug Gardner Award at the British Sports Journalism Awards and an ECB Special Award. 

Nigel Davies was designer and art director of Wisden Cricket Monthly, The Wisden Cricketer and The Cricketer between 1997 and 2015. Since then, he has worked as a freelance designer on a number of contract magazine publications, covering a broad range of subjects, such as HR, banking, the automotive industry, gardening and sports lifestyle. Nigel also curates and researches the back catalogues of esteemed sports photographers.

Clare Adams was the filming and photography manager at Marylebone Cricket Club for nearly two decades. In that role she managed MCC’s picture library and photographing a wide range of activities at Lord’s.

For more information please contact: Toby Phillips ([email protected])