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All-rounder wins Greene King PCA England Legends Player of the Summer
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Following in the footsteps of Owais Shah, Jonathan Trott and Ali Brown in recent years, Phil DeFreitas is the latest winner of the Greene King PCA England Legends Player of the Summer award.
Attending seven of the PCA England Legends matches, ‘Daffy’ also helped coach local children ahead of the Legends games twice, showing he was a key man on and off the pitch as he won the award following a vote from his Legends teammates.
DeFreitas has been a regular name on Legends team sheets for more than 10 years now and winning the award clearly means a lot to him:
“I’m really chuffed to win the award, it’s an honour especially having been retired for so long. I can’t even find the words, it’s really wonderful,” he said.
The 56-year-old appeared 147 times for England during his playing career which saw him score more than 1,500 runs and take over 250 wickets.
During this summer, DeFreitas scored 156 runs with a brilliant strike-rate of 136.8 and took six wickets. The former Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Lancashire man impressed during the first Legends game against Bramhall scoring 90 off just 51 balls including 11 fours and five sixes.
“It seems like I’ve been playing for the Legends forever and it was nice to get runs at Bramhall but I really enjoyed taking part in the coaching that day.
“It’s been wonderful getting involved with those sessions, it’s great to see the youngsters running around and being able to teach the next generation of cricketers is really rewarding.
“Clubs need that support, it’s important that we help them at the grass roots level and it means those clubs can move forward and hopefully produce the next Joe Root.”
DeFreitas explains that playing for the Legends is good for himself too and that he loves the camaraderie that it brings, “The atmosphere in the changing room is great, so it’s a nice way to spend a Friday playing for the Legends and meeting up with your ex-colleagues, it really makes my summer,” he said.
"Playing for the Legends you're doing good things for the community and it does a great deal for us ex-players too.”
PHIL DEFREITAS
“It gives you a lift just being there, it gives you a buzz and puts you in a happy place. It means the world to me to be part of this team.
“It really helps out ex-players. We all know the mental side of cricket once you finish playing and then you lose that changing room family, so playing for the Legends you’re doing good things for the community and it does a great deal for us too.”
DeFreitas receives the Greene King PCA England Legends trophy along with gift vouchers kindly provided by the Legends’ lead sponsor, Greene King and Crew Clothing, the casualwear supplier of the Legends.
If you want to see the PCA England Legends at your club for the 2023 season get in touch here: https://www.thepca.co.uk/pca-england-legends/
