Vikram Solanki Leads MVP Table
PCA Chairman Vikram Solanki has always endorsed the MVP as being the true judge of a player's match-winning capability and after week three of the domestic season his batting heroics against Yorkshire have seen him leap to the top of the MVP leaderboard. Solanki scored 206 out of 405 in Worcestershire's only innings, the third time in just five innings that he has been responsible for more than 38% of his team's total score. He then finished off a strong week by leading the Royals to a 10-wicket win over Nottinghamshire Outlaws in the Friends Provident Trophy (FPT) in alliance with Steven Davies and has now scored 504 runs in all cricket this season.
Davies, the Worcestershire keeper, who demonstrated his one-day pedigree in winning last year's Pro40 MVP, lies third in the overall MVP and top of the FPT MVP having scored 82 not out off just 59 balls in the Notts match. Davies dominated the opening partnership with his captain Solanki, scoring nearly 60% of Worcestershire's runs. In the PCA's unique MVP formula, batsmen score bonus points for contributing more than 30% of the team score and for a strike rate of more than a run-a-ball. Davies' knock saw him earn 22 points.
The evergreen Andrew Hall separates the Worcester' men in second place. Hall's all-round capabilities means he's regularly impacting matches for his team, the Northants Steelbacks. This week he earned bowling points for his miserly economy rate in the Championship against Gloucestershire: 15-5-22-1 and for wickets in the FPT against Glamorgan: 6-1-14-4. With the bat he made 91 in the second innings at Northampton albeit in a losing cause. Hall has already scored 361 runs and taken 13 wickets across all forms.
Somerset gloveman Craig Kieswetter notched his third century of the season this week as Somerset hung for a draw against Durham at Taunton. Until the FPT match versus Middlesex at Bath he had either scored a century or a duck but Middlesex Panther's capitulation meant he was marooned on 36 not out chasing down 66 for victory.
The prolific South African Jacques Rudolph was one of the leading run-scorers of 2008 and he has carried on from where he left off last year with a fine 198 against Worcestershire this week, taking his run aggregate across all cricket to 479 for the season. Rudolph had already scored 118 in the FPT against Gloucestershire, which earned him 27 points, and now he's added a further 34 points to keep him amongst the leading challengers to Solanki.
Jamie Dalrymple, the Glamorgan captain lies sixth overall and his individual form has been largely responsible for the Welsh county's strong start to the season. He has scored centuries against Middlesex and Derbyshire in the Championship, while he produced a man of the match performance against Derbyshire in the FPT making 75 out of a total of 205 (37% of the total) and taking 2-27 from 10 overs.
Greg Smith is seventh overall after playing a major part in Derbyshire's championship victory over Surrey. Smith made 94 out of the team total of 274 before returning figures of 11.2-7-18-3. He has scored 293 runs and taken 9 wickets across all cricket.
Ashwell Prince, the thorn in England's side last summer throughout the Test series, is proving one of the great early-season signings - at least in the county game's longest form. The Lancashire batsman leads the way in the LVCC MVP with scores of 56,91 not out, 74 and 135 not out from his four knocks. Conversely in the FPT his best score from three visits to the middle is just six. He is eighth overall with 366 runs.
Essex's miserly opening bowler David Masters and Hampshire's left-handed strokemaker, Michael Carberry, make up the top ten.
MVP Goes Amateur!
Fans of the PCA's groundbreaking Most Valuable Player system will be delighted to hear that MVP is being rolled out to all amateur cricketers! That's right, clubs and schools around the world will now be able to sign up for the professional MVP treatment, thanks to a brand new web portal in a joint initiative between the ECB and PCA.
No more arguing about who is the best player on your team - the MVP formula, designed by the pros for the pros, delivers a cumulative points system that rewards every run scored, wicket taken and catch held. All your scorecard information will be processed to determine who is grinding out the match winning performances...and who is full of hot air. Please visit at http://www.mycricketmvp.com/ for all the details.
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