Hussain stepped down as England captain after the World Cup Wisden's top five in pictures

Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, his expected successor as England one-day captain, have both been named in Wisden's five cricketers of the year.

The pair are joined by South Africa's Shaun Pollock, Matthew Hayden of Australia and Surrey captain Adam Hollioake to receive the accolade in the annual cricketing bible.

Vaughan is expected to be announced as England's new one-day skipper next Tuesday but it is for his performance in Test cricket that he gets the nod from Wisden.

The Yorkshire batsman scored 1,533 runs in 12 Tests against Sri Lanka, India and Australia, including seven centuries.

Vaughan was revealed last week on a new-look cover for the game's bible, doing away with the traditional woodcut image.

Hussain stepped down as England's one-day captain after the side were eliminated from the World Cup after the first round.

Awarded the OBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours list, Hussain has stated his aim is to play in 100 Tests, a milestone he is currently 19 short of achieving.

"As a captain, he is a major figure in cricket history, who has changed the culture of his team," said Wisden editor Tim de Lisle.

"And if you just take his batting alone, it is remarkable how often he makes a hundred in the first Test of a series or on a bad wicket."

Although the identities of Wisden's top five are fiercely guarded, Hussain broke ranks to announce he was among them in his Sunday newspaper column.

Players may only be nominated to the five once in their careers.

Vaughan features on a new-look front cover

Shaun Pollock stepped down as skipper of his national side after a disappointing World Cup.

The pace bowler led South Africa to the top of the world Test rankings in 2002, with series victories over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but suffered defeat to Australia.

"If we restricted the choice to players who had done well against the present Australians, we wouldn't have many to choose from," de Lisle argued.

Left-handed batsman Hayden dominated England in a 4-1 Ashes series victory, scoring 197 in the first innings of the first Test in Brisbane.

Hollioake joins the five after captaining Surrey to their third County Championship in four years.

It makes me so angry that Hussain and Pollock have been declared two of the five players of the year. Matthew Wassell, England Join the debate

The title came at the end of an emotional year for the former England one-day skipper, whose brother Ben died in a car crash in March but De Lisle said the award was no sympathy vote.

"Adam Hollioake scored a lot of runs at high speed in 2002," he argued.

"What he has done as captain of Surrey is what all of English cricket needs to do - turning the club round, mending its divisions and getting the players to perform with the toughness and attack of an international team."