YORKSHIRE'S new overseas all-rounder, Ian Harvey, who arrives at Headingley from Australia next week, is one of the Five Cricketers of the Year in the 2004 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

It is unusual for one of the 'Five Cricketers' not to have featured at some stage or other in the Test arena, but Harvey, a one-day international for Australia, earns his place chiefly because of his awesome limited overs performances for Gloucestershire.

In the five seasons Harvey was with Gloucestershire he helped transform them from one of the weaker county sides to the kings of one-day cricket.

During Harvey's time with them, Gloucestershire won five one-day trophies, including the Benson and Hedges Super Cup in 1999 when they crushed Yorkshire by 124 runs in the Lord's final.

David Foot writes of Harvey in Wisden: "Ian Harvey is one of the great paradoxes of cricket. Spectators get the impression that his bowling is not much more than ordinary medium-pace and Gloucestershire supporters initially wondered why the county used an overseas registration to sign such an innocuous Australian. Yet that has proved to hundreds of visibly perplexed batsmen a dangerous assumption...

"Harvey has now chosen to join Yorkshire, a division below Gloucester in both leagues, but a club where he has the potential to make a huge difference, once again."

When a Gloucestershire team-mate learned Harvey was moving to Yorkshire he commented: "He was a top man, funny and unassuming. We're devastated that he's leaving us."

Another Yorkshire player to be acclaimed by Wisden is England captain, Michael Vaughan, who earns a place in the Almanack's 40 leading cricketers in the world in 2003.

Also in the list are five Yorkshire overseas signings in Sachin Tendulkar, Stephen Fleming, Michael Bevan, Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann.

It shows how shrewdly Yorkshire have chosen in the main - although not all of their signings have been as successful as this illustrious quintet.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2004 is published by John Wisden (£35).

Updated: 10:44 Friday, April 09, 2004