Cricket: Bell joins the famous five in Wisden; CRICKET: Coventry-born star honoured by almanack.

Byline: By Richard Gibson

IAN BELL is named as one of the five cricketers of the year in the 2008 edition of Wisden.

The Coventry-born Warwickshire star is joined by England team-mate Ryan Sidebottom and specialist bowling coach Ottis Gibson - who rounded off his playing career with some spectacular performances for Durham - India's Zaheer Khan and West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

And the level of his achievement in making the famous list is underlined by features on five all-time greats who have never been honoured, with the newly retired Inzamam-ul-Haq joining Ian Chappell, Wes Hall, Abdul Qadir and Bishan Bedi.

In his profile on Bell, Lawrence Booth writes: "It was hard to ignore his style.

"The confidence placed in him as a senior batsman helped bring out that diminutive, almost impish, aestheticism; his cover-drive won the team's beauty contest hands down. "The catches he has made at short leg, or at silly point when Monty Panesar has been bowling, have long indicated a ballsense of world-class standard."

If Wisden is to be believed, Bell could shortly be turning out in Coventry colours. Now in its 145th year, the almanack warns that the dominance of Twenty20 cricket will turn the County Championship into a relic with first-time editor Scyld Berry suggesting that city cricket will be king, even in England.

The timely editorial comes a week before the beginning of the hugely-anticipated Indian Premier League - an eight-team tournament representing eight cities, sharing out the world's best talent.

The second 'rebel' Indian Cricket League tournament finished only a few days ago. And although few Englishmen have been engaged in either as yet, Wisden visualises the bold new world shaping up for our domestic game given the cash on offer on the subcontinent.

"Twenty-over cricket in India is shifting the tectonic plates of the professional game as never before," writes Berry. "This period in the game's history, of primarily representing countries, seems to be ending, suddenly.

"City-based cricket has arrived and will surely spread, annulling the player's traditional relationship with his county, state or province, "The day has lurched closer when England's best cricketers, in addition to representing England, will play for an English region in a first-class tournament at the start of each season; for an English city in the 20-over competition in mid-summer; and for an Indian city.

"County cricket will then become a relic at amateur level, like the county championship of English rugby.

"Cricket administrators in Test-playing countries around the world should be prepared to ride this Indian tiger, to keep the 20-over game in proportion and not let it swamp all other forms.

"The ICC has stacked its tournaments with one-sided matches; the IPL has realised that drama depends on competitive games and has shared out the stars.

"But, in the course of time, what 20-over cricket lacks - if only a change of tempo - will become ever more apparent, by comparison with Test cricket."

Berry insists the England team has to become the absolute priority for the ECB, with grassroots cricket and county affairs very much secondary and tertiary.

The England team earns 80 per cent of the revenue yet the counties take more than half of the pot.

"We all know from the glorious summer of 2005 that nothing makes the sport grow in every way so much as the success of the national team," Berry writes, reflecting on the Ashes win of three years ago. "Many more people watched and played than the usual white, male, middle-class constituency.

To be the best has to be the primary objective of the game's governing body - nothing less."

The editorial bemoans the loss of cricket to terrestrial television - reflecting on a current live audience of a fifth of what it was - the decision to retain a 40-over competition in the English domestic structure, despite recommendations to scrap it, and the prohibitive cost of attending international fixtures.

* Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2008, edited by Scyld Berry. Hardback and soft cover versions: pounds 40; large format version (about twice the traditional size): pounds 50; searchable ebook version (via wisden.com): US EUR50.

CAPTION(S):

GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS... Warwickshire's Ian Bell has cemented his international place with some mature batting performances and brilliant exhibitions in the field