Broad Goes Top Of MVP Table - 23/02/2009 - The Professional Cricketers' Association

Broad Goes Top Of MVP Table - 23/02/2009

Just over five weeks remain in this year's race for the coveted title of England MVP and it's the young pretender Stuart Broad who's made a dash for the finish line. Broad has leap-frogged Kevin Pietersen to lead by seven points after significant contributions with bat and ball in the hastily re-arranged Test in Antigua. Broad helped push England's first-innings total past 550 with a quick-fire 44 from 55 balls but it was his second-innings burst with the new ball on the final afternoon that swung the match England's way. He removed dangermen Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul as well as Ryan Hinds to record 3-69, taking his tally for the MVP campaign to 52 wickets. Broad, who has turned down the opportunity of playing in this year's IPL to concentrate on his England career, is ranked first in the ODI MVP and has climbed above Andrew Flintoff in the Test MVP to fourth.

Kevin Pietersen was circumspection personified in Antigua, chiselling out 51 from 132 balls in England's first innings. England's premier batsman has amassed 1472 runs across all forms of the game including six hundreds. Pietersen has slipped to third in the Test MVP after Andrew Strauss' heroics in Antigua, despite remaining England's leading Test run-scorer this year. He has 937 to Strauss' 903. They each have four hundreds.

After Kingston's 51 all out where he made two low scores, Strauss' 169 in Antigua was a real statement of intent and spoke volumes about his character. He reminded everyone that the England captaincy sits comfortably on his broad shoulders, his runs coming from just 278 balls. His hundred racked him up 24 MVP points but he missed out on an extra points bonus as his contribution was fractionally short of the required 30 per cent of the team's total. He is up to second in the Test MVP.

It was a hugely frustrating week for Andrew Flintoff, who sustained a worrying hip injury bowling in the West Indies first innings. England's talisman recorded the third pair of his career with the bat, receiving a shooter in the first innings and being clearly impeded by his injury in the second and as a result couldn't make up ground on Broad and Pietersen. His big-hearted efforts with the ball on the final afternoon were ultimately in vain and for once the MVP doesn't tell the whole story as he walked away with just nine MVP points from the game. Flintoff is third in the overall MVP with 565 runs and 38 wickets; in Tests he is ranked fifth with 264 runs and 21 wickets.

Jimmy Anderson still heads the Test MVP having taken 40 wickets in the campaign but he has not taken more than two wickets in any one of the winter's Tests. Re-called to the side in Antigua he was impressive with the old and new ball obtaining conventional and reverse swing but didn't enjoy much luck. With the bat, his second-innings score of 20 as nightwatchman was his best effort since the middle of July but he will need to take more wickets if he is to hold off the challenge of Strauss and Pietersen.

The England selectors deserve credit for choosing Graeme Swann as the premier spinner ahead of Monty Panesar. No doubt Monty will come again but Swann repaid the faith shown in him taking eight wickets for the match including 5-57 in the West Indies first innings. His 40-point return was the highest for the match.

For more information and to see the full tables and leaders in individual competitions click on the links below.

Overall Rankings - MVP
LVCC Rankings
Friends Provident Rankings
Twenty20 Rankings
NatWest Pro40 Rankings