Dawson wins MVP awards

Hampshire’s Liam Dawson has won the PCA Men’s Domestic Overall MVP and the LV= Insurance County Championship Player of the Year, alongside £12,500 in prize money.

The battle for the MVP awards came down to the last game of the season as Dawson leapfrogged Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins to the main prize and overtook Essex spinner Simon Harmer to the LV= Insurance County Championship award.

In the final game of the year, Dawson took incredible match figures of 9-97 against Surrey to ensure he went home with both prizes.

The Hampshire all-rounder took an impressive 49 wickets in the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One at an average of 20 which included four five-wicket hauls. He also scored 840 runs with the bat averaging 40, including three hundreds in the competition.

The 33-year-old amassed an incredible nine Match MVP awards across all formats of cricket this season with five in red-ball cricket, one in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, one in the Vitality Blast and two in the The Hundred.

Dawson’s most impressive performance in Division One came against Middlesex as he scored the highest amount of points for any Match MVP this year in the red ball game. A brilliant innings of 141 was backed up with a phenomenal performance with the ball as he took 6-40 and 6-90 he help Hampshire to victory by an innings and 61 runs, securing a massive 89 MVP points.

In the Metro Bank One Day Cup, the Hampshire spinner took figures of 7-15 to claim the Match MVP and 28 points, propelling his side into the final of the competition.

Dawson also took eight wickets in The Hundred for London Spirit and 14 in the Vitality Blast at an average of 23.9 with best figures of 4-21 for Hampshire.

Claiming both awards, Dawson earned a massive 669 points on the Overall table and 397 in the County Championship to secure the prizes, he will also receive a Mappin & Webb trophy for both accolades.

On winning the award, Dawson said: “I’m absolutely delighted, I’m proud of what I’ve done this season.

“It’s great to finish the season the way we did against Surrey and ending up as the Overall MVP winner is something that’s going to be difficult to beat in my career.

“To win the One Day Cup semi-final like that was cool, but I think I’ve put in a lot of match winning performances across all formats this season.

“In four-day cricket, we’ve had pitches that have spun towards the end of the games which has obviously helped me.

“The last couple of games, people made me aware of where I was on the MVP table and there are some fantastic players on that list, so I’m honoured to win it against them.

“It’s the first season where I’ve put a good season together with both bat and ball and it’s really pleasing that it has resulted in two big MVP awards.

“I’ve got an exciting winter coming up with the Big Bash and the SA20 so that’s where my focus is for now.”

The Player of the Year is selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by Argentex. The formula enables players to score or lose MVP points on every ball based on their expected performance for that ball in comparison to CricViz’s extensive historical database of First-Class, 50-over and T20 fixtures with the venue being played at also taken into account.

Middlesex all-rounder Higgins had been leading the Overall table for much of the season, but in the end fell short of Dawson by just over 30 MVP points.

The 28-year-old started the season brilliantly by scoring four half centuries in April and picking up the PCA Men’s Player of the Month.

Higgins enjoyed a phenomenal run-scoring year amassing 1,602 runs across all formats, often digging Middlesex out of trouble with the bat and contributing brilliantly with the ball, taking 53 wickets in 2023.

Higgins finished the season in fine form too, scoring 137 against Nottinghamshire in Middlesex’s final game of the summer as he also claimed third place in the LV= Insurance County Championship Player of the Year award.

The Middlesex-man picked up four Match MVP awards across the season, with a particularly impressive performance against Glamorgan in the Vitality Blast, securing 47 MVP points for an unbeaten innings of 71 off 36 balls followed up by fantastic figures of 3-20.

Hampshire skipper James Vince finished in third position on the Overall table with 588 MVP points, ending up as the highest points scorer on the Overall batting table.

The 32-year-old scored a plethora of runs across all formats this season, finishing on an unbelievable 1,868, thanks to over a 1,000 red-ball runs and ending as the leading run scorer in the Vitality Blast with 670.

Essex spinner Simon Harmer completed the competitive top three in the County Championship table finishing with 379 MVP points.

The 34-year-old took 61 wickets in red-ball cricket this summer for Essex, resulting in a second place finish on the leading wicket takers list in Division One.

The South-African finished as the leading spin bowler on the County Championship MVP list and incredibly made the IG PCA Men’s Team of the Year for a record fifth consecutive season.

Dawson completed a hat-trick of awards on the final day of the season, having been named as the IG PCA Men’s Team of the Year captain, with Higgins and Vince also included in the ultimate XI.

View the men’s domestic Overall and County Championship MVP rankings here.