Surely we should discuss the relative merits of the candidates before voting? To vote first and then witness the campaigning sounds back to front to me! We can discuss, sensibly, without causing problems: the point of a secret ballot is simply to avoid tactical voting... and that's not going to change so long as we discuss candidates rather than announce intentions!

Seems to me that neither Cook nor Newman have done enough... at least when compared with Shah or Joyce. Some allowance can be made for Cook's promise.. but not THAT much: he wasn't, as Joyce and Shah were, one of the batsmen of the year in the CC. Of the bowlers it has presumably got to come down to Davies or Panesar... as they were the stars of the CC this year. Not playing full seasons is perhaps an issue with each of them... but their impact can't be questioned.

Comparing batting with bowling is always going to be tough.. but is there any reason to look beyond that short-list of four?