NatWest PCA Award winners announced

Patel had already won the PCA Most Valuable Player Award and added the NatWest PCA Players’ Player Award to winners’ medals in the Royal London One-Day Cup and the NatWest T20 Blast plus promotion in the Specsavers County Championship after his outstanding performances in all cricket was recognised by current county players.

Patel was presented with the Reg Hayter Cup at the 48th NatWest PCA Awards at the Roundhouse in London, one of 13 awards presented on the night.

Patel faced competition from Surrey’s retiring former Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara, Glamorgan all-rounder Colin Ingram and Essex seamer Jamie Porter for the NatWest PCA Players’ Player Award but Porter did collect two prizes, winning the John Arlott Cup for the NatWest PCA Young Player of the Year Award and the Specsavers County Championship Player of the Year.

England’s success in winning the ICC Women’s World Cup was also recognised with all-rounder Natalie Sciver being voted NatWest Women’s Player of the Summer by her fellow internationals ahead of last year’s winner Tammy Beaumont and left-arm spinner Alex Hartley.

Patel is the first Nottinghamshire player since Richard Hadlee in 1987 to lift the Reg Hayter Cup and only the county’s third player to win the award most-coveted by county players after Hadlee (who also won it 1984 and 1981) and Barry Stead in 1974. The award was introduced in 1970.

“It’s a great honour to be voted by your peers. It’s a great feeling and it demonstrates how well we have done as a team and individually this season,” Patel said.

“I’m a little bit surprised actually. To be up there with a world class player like Sanga, with the amount of runs that he scored in a short amount of time, is a privilege in itself.

“Jamie has had a wonderful year. Essex have won Division One and he has been the stand-out bowler in the First Division.

“It’s a great achievement for all four shortlisted nominees so I’m very pleased. I’ve never been up there for Players’ Player before so to win it is unreal really. I’m really happy and chuffed to bits.”

Porter, who faced competition from fellow seamers Jofra Archer (Sussex), Ben Coad (Yorkshire) and Craig Overton (Somerset) for the NatWest PCA Young Player Award, took 75 wickets to help Essex, who were promoted as Second Division champions 12 months ago, win their first Specsavers County Championship title in 25 years.

He returned career-best innings and match best bowling figures – seven for 55 and 12 for 95 – against Somerset at Chelmsford in August and also won the Specsavers County Championship Player of the Year Award.

“For other players around the country to give their seal of approval means a lot to me and makes this award special,” Porter said.

Porter will head to Australia with England Lions next month but it is only three years since his dreams of playing county cricket appeared to be over when he was not picked up by a county after he had finished with the MCC Young Cricketers so he went to work for a recruitment company.

“I spent six months working in recruitment and I thought that’s where I would be for a long time,” he said.

“I enjoyed it but, coming back into cricket, it means that I don’t play with any fear now. There are a lot of guys who are afraid that if cricket doesn’t work out they don’t know where they are going to go.

“If I get injured or have a bad season I would be more than happy in the outside world. I want to play cricket for as a long as I can but I know that I can survive if that fails.”

Sciver scored two centuries in England’s World Cup campaign, her first in ODIs against Pakistan at Leicester and a match-winning effort against New Zealand at Derby where she unveiled the ‘Natmeg’, an audacious through-the-legs shot from leg stump yorkers.

“Nothing can take away from that day at Lord’s and just being there with the whole team and the girls who didn’t quite make the 15 so we were there as a squad,” Sciver said.

“This caps off a brilliant year for us and hopefully we can produce a few more brilliant years. To be voted by my peers is a really nice feeling.

“There are a few other players who could have been nominated as well. It was a performance by the full 15 in the squad, so I am very lucky.

“I’ve become a bit smarter about my game. I have been on a steep learning curve with my batting, how to play different situations. I feel like I have matured as a batter so the time I put in has worked for me.”

The PCA’s 50th Anniversary was also celebrated with the presentation of the PCA Lifetime Achievement Award to founder Fred Rumsey.

An organisation to represent the players’ interests was the brainchild of the former England, Worcestershire, Somerset and Derbyshire left-arm paceman and it was Rumsey who was the driving force behind the first meeting of what became the Cricketers’ Association in London on September 4 1967.

The Investec Test and Royal London One Day International Players of the Summer were also presented with Jimmy Anderson ending a memorable summer with the Test award and Joe Root winning the 50-over prize after they finished top of the PCA MVP Rankings in the respective formats.

Glamorgan’s Ingram won the Royal London One-Day Cup Player of the Year with Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen taking home the NatWest T20 Blast Player of the Year.

Patel, Porter, Ingram, Sangakkara and Overton were all included in the PCA Team of the Year, which comprised the top performers in red and white ball domestic cricket according to the PCA MVP Rankings.
Former Durham batsman Michael Gough retained the Harold Goldblatt Award for the PCA Umpire of the Year, a prize also voted for by current county cricketers.

David Leatherdale, PCA Chief Executive, said: “The 2017 NatWest PCA Awards are a fitting finale to what has been an exceptional summer of cricket in the PCA’s 50th Anniversary year. From a team perspective, Essex winning the Specsavers County Championship in the first year back in the top division and Nottinghamshire winning both major one-day trophies, while gaining promotion after relegation last year, have been fantastic achievements.

“The international summer proved to be another successful one with Joe Root, in his first year leading the Test side, and Eoin Morgan leading England to impressive victories over South Africa and the West Indies. However, our England Women’s team winning the World Cup in front of a sell-out 27,000 home crowd at Lord’s will live long in the memory as the highlight of the cricketing summer.

“All our individual winners fully deserve the accolades and praise they will receive and there is no higher praise than to be voted for by all your teammates and your peers. Each winner should rightly be proud of their achievements.

“In our 50th Anniversary year it is only fitting that our Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to one of our founding members, Fred Rumsey. His courage and determination some 50 years ago has enabled the PCA to become the respected organisation it is today.”

THE FULL LIST OF THE 2017 NATWEST PCA AWARDS WINNERS:

REG HAYTER CUP FOR THE NATWEST PCA PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)

JOHN ARLOTT CUP FOR THE NATWEST PCA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Jamie Porter (Essex)

NATWEST WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE SUMMER:
Natalie Sciver

INVESTEC TEST PLAYER OF THE SUMMER:
James Anderson

ROYAL LONDON ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE SUMMER:
Joe Root

PCA TEAM OF THE YEAR:
• Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire)
• Mark Stoneman (Surrey)
• Colin Ingram (Glamorgan)
• Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey)
• Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)
• Darren Stevens (Kent)
• Ben Cox (Worcestershire)
• Kyle Abbott (Hampshire)
• Craig Overton (Somerset)
• Simon Harmer (Essex)
• Jamie Porter (Essex)

SPECSAVERS COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Jamie Porter (Essex)

NATWEST T20 BLAST PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Wayne Madsen (Derbyshire)

ROYAL LONDON ONE-DAY CUP PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Colin Ingram (Glamorgan)
GREENE KING PCA ENGLAND MASTERS PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Owais Shah
PCA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Fred Rumsey
ECB SPECIAL AWARD:
Heather Knight and Mark Robinson
HAROLD GOLDBLATT AWARD FOR THE PCA UMPIRE OF THE YEAR:
Michael Gough