Issue no.25
Glory Days The PCA Awards At 50
SOUVENIR SUPPLEMENT
The PCA Awards At 50 left:
The Chairman in T20 mode with Worcestershire Rapids on Vitality T20 Blast finals day v Notts Outlaws, Edgbaston, September 21, 2019 below: PCA staff and our 2019 major awards winners enjoy another successful event at Camden’s Roundhouse, October 2 2019.
Beyond The Boundaries: The PCA Awards At 50 Beyond the Boundaries is published by the Professional Cricketers’ Association, however the views expressed in contributed articles are not necessarily those of the PCA, its members, officers, employees or group companies.
EDITOR ANDY AFFORD andy@stencil-agency.co.uk EDITOR FOR PCA LUKE REYNOLDS luke.reynolds@thepca.co.uk PCA CO-ORDINATOR ALI PROSSER alison.prosser@thepca.co.uk ART DIRECTOR SAM BOWLES sam@stencil-agency.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS TOM BIRTWISTLE PETER CLARK MARTIN CROPPER NICK DENNING VICKY ELWICK STUART JONES TOM JONES CHARLIE MULRAINE DAISY NEWMAN KENNETH SHENTON LYNSEY WILLIAMS MATT WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES PORTRAITCOLLECTIVE
Welcome
Players appreciate that one of the greatest cricketing honours they can receive is being voted a winner by their peers at the NatWest PCA Awards evening. In its fiftieth year of existence, the awards have consistently reflected the times. 2019 sees the game entering a crucial period in its history. With ‘The Hundred’ on the horizon, a new benchmark
approaches for players to be measured against. In that, the PCA works tirelessly to ensure that players young and old are recognised and rewarded for their contribution to and impact on domestic and international cricket. Marking the ascent of those that set the bar is all part of the journey. DARYL MITCHELL
PCA Chairman
Event Sponsors
In aid of
Event Partners
DESIGN
THEPCA.CO.UK / 3
The Major Awards NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year 2019 Ben Stokes, Durham & England
4 / THEPCA.CO.UK
The PCA Awards At 50 The Reg Hayter Cup for the NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year is awarded to English cricket’s outstanding player across the summer. Chosen by playing PCA members, every player from the 18 first-class counties and the English national side is available to vote for. The ‘headline trophy’ serves as its own who’s who of the sport... 2019 Ben Stokes Durham 2018 Joe Denly Kent 2017 Samit Patel Nottinghamshire 2016 Ben Duckett Northamptonshire 2015 Chris Rushworth Durham 2014 Adam Lyth Yorkshire 2013 Moeen Ali Worcestershire 2012 Nick Compton Somerset 2011 Marcus Trescothick Somerset 2010 Neil Carter Warwickshire
2009 Marcus Trescothick Somerset 2008 Martin Van Jaarsveld Kent 2007 Ottis Gibson Durham 2006 Mark Ramprakash Surrey 2005 Andrew Flintoff Lancashire 2004 Andrew Flintoff Lancashire 2003 Mushtaq Ahmed Sussex 2002 Michael Vaughan Yorkshire 2001 David Fulton Kent 2000 Marcus Trescothick Somerset
1999 Stuart Law Essex
1989 Jimmy Cook Somerset
1979 John Lever Essex
1998 Mal Loye Northamptonshire
1988 Graeme Hick Worcestershire
1978 John Lever Essex
1997 Steve James Glamorgan
1987 Sir Richard Hadlee Nottinghamshire
1977 Mike Procter Gloucestershire
1996 Phil Simmons Leicestershire
1986 Courtney Walsh Gloucestershire
1976 Peter Lee Lancashire
1995 Dominic Cork Derbyshire
1985 Neal Radford Worcestershire
1975 Zaheer Abbas Gloucestershire
1994 Brian Lara Warwickshire
1984 Sir Richard Hadlee Nottinghamshire
1974 Barry Stead Nottinghamshire
1993 Steve Watkin Glamorgan
1983 Ken McEwan Essex
1973 Peter Lee Lancashire
1992 Courtney Walsh Gloucestershire
1982 Malcolm Marshall Hampshire
1972 Andy Roberts Hampshire
1991 Waqar Younis Surrey
1981 Sir Richard Hadlee Nottinghamshire
1971 Lance Gibbs Warwickshire
1990 Graham Gooch Essex
1980 Robin Jackman Surrey
1970 Mike Procter Gloucestershire 1970 Jack Bond Lancashire
THEPCA.CO.UK / 5
The PCA Awards At 50
PCA Young Player of the Year, 2019 Tom Banton, Somerset Introduced in 1990, winners of the John Arlott Cup illustrate the game’s shopfloor’s ability to recognise players with international potential. The John Arlott Cup recognises the achievements of the most promising young player in English cricket, with only those who are under the age of 24 at the start of the season being eligible for the award.
6 / THEPCA.CO.UK
2019 Tom Banton Somerset
2009 James Taylor Leicestershire
1999 David Sales Northamptonshire
2018 Ollie Pope Surrey
2008 Ravi Bopara Essex
1998 Andrew Flintoff Lancashire
2017 Jamie Porter Essex
2007 Adil Rashid Yorkshire
1997 Ben Hollioake Surrey
2016 Ben Duckett Northamptonshire
2006 Sir Alastair Cook Essex
1996 Chris Silverwood Yorkshire
2015 Tom Curran Surrey
2005 Sir Alastair Cook Essex
1995 Andrew Symonds Gloucestershire
2014 Alex Lees Yorkshire
2004 Ian Bell Warwickshire
1994 John Crawley Lancashire
2013 Ben Stokes Durham
2003 Kabir Ali Worcestershire
1993 Mal Loye Northamptonshire
2012 Joe Root Yorkshire
2002 Kabir Ali Worcestershire
1992 Mark Lathwell Somerset
2011 Alex Hales Nottinghamshire
2001 Nicky Peng Durham
1991 Dominic Cork Derbyshire
2010 Adam Lyth Yorkshire
2000 Matthew Hoggard Yorkshire
1990 Michael Atherton Lancashire
Official beer of
England Cricket
The PCA Awards At 50
NatWest Women’s Player of the Summer, 2019 Sophie Ecclestone Only in existence since 2014, 2019 saw another worthy set of nominees...
SOPHIE ECCLESTONE Tall and with an elegant action, 2019 has brought yet more success for England’s slow left-armer. A winner in 2018 and barely out of her teens, Ecclestone is already very possibly the best spinner in the world. KATHERINE BRUNT A player who cares and continues to give everything to the cause. Forever driving standards and regarded as a captain’s dream, Brunt has proven a true talisman and role model to the national side. AMY JONES The 26-year-old has well-and-truly kicked on over the past two years, with the first half of 2019 seeing Jones as England’s standout batter. And if the summer saw Jones coming of age, then 2020 provides the opportunity to make her out one of the world’s best.
8 / THEPCA.CO.UK
2019 Sophie Ecclestone 2018 Sophie Ecclestone 2017 Natalie Sciver 2016 Tammy Beaumont 2015 Anya Shrubsole 2014 Charlotte Edwards
OFFICIAL PARTNER
The UK’s largest mutual pension, investment and life insurance company. royallondoncricket.com
RL _Cricket
Royal London Cricket
THE HISTORY MAKERS
10 / THEPCA.CO.UK
The PCA Awards At 50
A potted run-through of cricket’s greatest accolade and showpiece, the NatWest PCA Awards
above: Gloucestershire captain Mike Procter lifts the Benson and Hedges Cup, Lord’s July 16 1977. right: Lancashire’s Jack Bond batting in the 1970 John Player League versus Worcestershire at Tipton Road, Dudley.
2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the annual NatWest PCA Awards. Perennially one of the most anticipated dates in the cricketing calendar, the end-of-season ceremony always proves to be the perfect way to round off another packed summer of international and domestic cricket. The Reg Hayter Cup, presented to the NatWest PCA Player of the Year, remains one of the most revered individual prizes in the game today. It is the only major award in England and Wales voted for by the players themselves, offering the most informed reflection of which cricketer, domestic or international, has had the biggest impact on English cricket in any given year. The award is named after Reg Hayter, the late sports journalist who was a MCC member, a Lord’s Taverner, president of his local cricket club Stanmore CC, a member of Surrey County Cricket Club and editor of The Cricketer magazine between 1978-1981. Hayter ran his own sports journalism agency, Hayters, out of various locations in and around Central London’s Fleet Street, doing so for close to 40 years. He also named himself a
close friend of - and regular adviser to - some of cricket’s biggest names, including the likes of Denis Compton, Basil D’Oliveira and Sir Ian Botham. The first recipients of the award named in Hayter’s honour were Gloucestershire’s Mike Procter and Lancashire’s Jack Bond, the pair sharing the trophy in 1970 - the first and to this day only players to do so. Bond, who sadly passed away earlier this year, was Lancashire captain at the time of the PCA’s formation in 1967 and is therefore credited as one of the Association’s founding fathers. He was one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in the same year he won the Reg Hayter Cup, the first of 19 players to achieve that feat. Legendary South African all-rounder Procter would go on to finish his career with 21,396 first-class runs, with most of them scored on the English county circuit. He would receive the Reg Hayter Cup for the second time in 1977, one of several cricketers to take home the trophy on multiple occasions. The honour of being THEPCA.CO.UK / 11
Should’ve gone to Specsavers
Official Title Partner of the Specsavers Ashes Series
The PCA Awards At 50 ‘the first’ went to Peter Lee, the former Northamptonshire and Lancashire fast bowler, who was amongst the most effective bowlers in county cricket throughout the 1970s. He scooped the PCA Players’ Player of the Year in both 1973 and 1976, after taking over 100 first-class wickets in each of those seasons. Procter would go on to match his feat just a year later. Neither would return to win the award for a third time and it took another 11 years before New Zealand ace, Sir Richard Hadlee, became the first man to do just that. The first player ever to reach 400 Test wickets, Hadlee is often quoted as looking back on his days at Nottinghamshire as amongst the fondest of his long career. He twice helped the Trent Michael Atherton: a man of great promise.
left:
Richard Hadlee: his adopted county’s greatest ever? this picture: Peter Lee: reliable and respected.
Bridge-based side to the County Championship title during his nine-year spell there, and finished as the leading wicket-taker in the domestic game on the same number of occasions. Those two high water mark seasons were 1981 and 1984 and, unsurprisingly, Hadlee ended up being named the PCA Players’ Player of the Year on both occasions. The first year of the next decade saw England skipper Michael Atherton pick up the inaugural PCA Young Player of the Year award, handed out to the outstanding player aged 23 or under on April 1 at the start of the season. In the same year, current PCA President Graham Gooch
Brian Lara: making 501 not out against Durham.
won his first and only Reg Hayter Cup. Gooch would go on to finish his career with 67,057 runs across all formats - an all-time record. 1994 saw a memorable recipient of the same award in West Indies record-breaker, Brian Lara. Earlier that season, Lara had famously compiled 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham - a first-class individual scoring record that still stands to this day. It would help him to a unique double of the Players’ Player of the Year and the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year awards. In the mid-noughties, former PCA President Andrew Flintoff would become THEPCA.CO.UK / 13
The PCA Awards At 50 only the second man to win the main award in consecutive years, following in the wake of Essex’s John Lever, the left-arm paceman doing so in 1978-79. Flintoff’s second triumph in 2005 came on the back of his star turn in England’s two-one triumph over Australia, commonly referred to as the greatest Ashes series of all time. Six years later, Flintoff’s top order teammate in that series, Somerset’s Marcus Trescothick, would join Hadlee to become the only other player to scoop the Players’ Player of the Year award on three occasions. One of the most respected names in domestic cricket, ‘Tres’ has since gone on to become a Director of the Professional Cricketers’ Trust. One of the more recent developments of the annual ceremony has been the addition of a women’s award. The Women’s Player of the Summer was first handed out in 2014, the same year that saw England Women sign professional contracts to play for their country. International great Charlotte Edwards fittingly won Edwards: 14 / THEPCA.CO.UK
England’s greatest ever captain?
left:
Flintoff: A hundred v Australia, 4th Test, Trent Bridge, August 2005. below: Duckett at the double.
the inaugural award, a title that has since seen four different recipients. These names include all-rounder Natalie Sciver winning in 2017, the year that England Women won the World Cup on home soil. Ben Duckett’s incredible 2016 season saw him become the first player to win both the Reg Hayter Cup and the PCA Young Player of the Year in the same season. Amassing 2,706 runs across all formats that year - the most since the aforementioned Trescothick’s 2,934 in 2009 – and doing so at the age of just 22. The lefthander’s dominance with the bat led to a call-up for
Stokes: ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 v New Zealand, Lord’s July 14, 2019.
England’s winter tour of Bangladesh, a trend that continued with the most recent winner of the award, Kent’s Joe Denly, travelling to Sri Lanka shortly after the 49th awards last year. The fiftieth winner was Durham’s Ben Stokes, who’s impact on the cricketing landscape this summer saw him create some incredible moments as well as phenomenal statistics. In winning England’s first ever men’s World Cup, as well as playing a huge part in a drawn Ashes, Stokes placed the sport on the front pages as well as to the rear. The 28-year-old’s influence looks set only to grow.
VitalityHealth, VitalityLife and VitalityInvest are trading names of Vitality Corporate Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.