It has been announced today that Phil Hillyard has won the Wisden–MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year 2018 competition, with his image from a Big Bash League match in Sydney.

Hillyard, of News Corp Australia, captured Sydney Sixers’ Moises Henriques holding on to an outstanding catch to dismiss Melbourne Stars’ Nick Larkin at the Sydney Cricket Ground in December. He has scooped the £2,000 first prize for his image.

Winner

Runners-Up

The two runners-up in the competition are former winner Mathew Lewis of Getty Images, and Syed Mahabubul Kader, an amateur photographer from Bangladesh.

Lewis took an image of Sri Lanka’s Nilakshi de Silva sharing her jubilation with Yashoda Mendis after taking a catch in the ICC Women’s World T20 game against Bangladesh in St Lucia, whilst Kader captured dockyard workers’ children playing cricket near the Buriganga River in Keraniganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The two runners-up are awarded £1,000 each, and the eight shortlisted entrants all receive £250.

The top three entries feature in the 2019 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, and all shortlisted images are displayed inside and outside the MCC Museum at Lord’s.

There were over 700 entries from around the globe, with endless different depictions of the game.

The competition was judged by a panel chaired by Chris Smith, the former Chief Sports Photographer of The Sunday Times, and this year he was joined, for the first time, by Diana Keen, Senior Production Manager at Sunset+Vine.

The rest of the panel comprised acclaimed cricket photographers Patrick Eagar and Adrian Murrell, music photographer Kevin Cummins and former art director of The Cricketer, Nigel Davies.

"I love the game of cricket, its people and the challenge of photographing it"

The winner, Phil Hillyard, said: “It’s such an honour to win the Wisden–MCC Photo of the Year for a sport I am so passionate about and have spent much of my career covering.

“I love the game of cricket, its people and the challenge of photographing it. I feel very privileged that my image will be on display at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket.

“A big thank you from me goes to Moises Henriques for taking such a great catch at the wonderful Sydney Cricket Ground.”

Lawrence Booth, Wisden Editor, said: “"The winner and the two runners-up in the Wisden-MCC competition always take pride of place in the Almanack's colour section, and they're as eye-catching as ever in this year's edition.

“The standard of entries remained exceptionally high, and everyone at Wisden is extremely grateful to MCC for administering the competition.”