BALL IN ENGLAND SQUAD AFTER STRONG SHOWING IN MVP RANKINGS Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball has been rewarded for a strong start to the Specsavers County Championship with a call-up to England’s Test squad. Ball is the joint leading wicket-taker in Division one with 19 wickets and is just one point off the top of the MVP Rankings in fourth behind joint leaders Sam Robson, Jonny Bairstow and Keith Barker. Ball’s emergence as a force in red-ball cricket has happened relatively recently; he made his list A debut in 2009 but wasn’t able to break through into Nottinghamshire’s strong Championship attack until 2014 when he played four games with a best of 3-60 against Durham. Last summer he played 13 Championship matches scoring 235 runs and taking 39 wickets including 6-49 against Sussex. He finished 48th in the Championship MVP and 56th across all formats. If you want to play England selector and intend to use the MVP Rankings as a tool to compare players then perhaps the best yardstick is the Average Points Per Game (APPG) measurement. That’s to take nothing away from our previous MVP winners (a list of whom can be found in our new Hall of Fame section: https://www.thepca.co.uk/county-roll-of-honour.html) but merely to acknowledge that they accrue lots of points by playing lots of games as well as by producing top performances and that there are players out there who for various reasons are not ever-present. For example, the top two players in the Championship MVP Rankings in terms of APPG are Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson, who on average earn 24.5064 points and 23.0774 points per game respectively. They are the best in the business and would probably challenge for the county MVP but for those pesky England selectors who keep calling them away. Ball averages 16.84 points per Championship match. The APPG measurement can also be useful when seeing how a player is performing against his career average. Take one of our joint leaders Bairstow. Bairstow averages 15.66 points per game in Championship cricket over the course of his career but in the last two years he has almost doubled that. In 2015 he played just nine Championship games but scored 1108 runs at a strike rate of 77 runs per 100 balls including five hundreds and five fifties. His APPG was 29.37. This season, when he again looks a class above his county peers, he’s notched 533 runs at a rate of 88 runs per 100 balls, has already produced innings of 246 and 198 and has an APPG of 27.29. Prior to last season his best APPG for a single season was 17.20 back in 2011. Leading the APPG this year is a certain Joe Root with 33.28 points per game having scored a double century and taken 2-23 in Yorkshire’s win over Surrey this week. An important aspect of his partnership with Bairstow – a Yorkshire record 372 – was the rate at which both men scored, which allowed them just enough time to bowl Surrey out after several lengthy rain delays and 100 lost overs. Bairstow’s 246 was scored at the rate of 91 runs per 100 balls; Root’s 213 at 88 runs per 100 balls. Score your runs quickly and you earn more MVP points – simple. Root and Bairstow are now off on England duty and will slip down the Rankings of course. Robson and Barker will be hoping the same could happen to them if they continue their fine starts to the summer. Robson must be in contention for the Lord’s Test at least given he’s had three innings there this term producing scores of 231, 106 and 114 not out! The last effort – the 17th first-class century of his career – was brought up this week against Nottinghamshire with his team having been 49-3 in reply to 354 on a pitch that was sluggish rather than flat. Barker took his wicket tally to 19 for the season with 3-54 and 2-39 against Somerset at Edgbaston. The left-arm swing bowler has proven pedigree having helped Warwickshire win the Championship in 2012 when he took over 50 wickets. Since the Rankings began back in 2007 Barker is ranked ninth in terms of career Average Points Per Game (20.61pts) and if Warwickshire can keep him fit he could help them push Yorkshire all the way. CHAMPIONSHIP MVP PLAYER COUNTY BAT BOWL FIELD CAPT WINS PLAYED POINTS AV PTS Robson Middx 108.38 0 1 0 0 4 109 27.35 Bairstow Yorks 98.16 0 10 0 1 4 109 27.29 Barker Warks 14.72 90.80 3 0 0 4 109 27.13 Ball Notts 16.75 87.88 2 0 1 4 108 26.91 Sangakarra Surrey 99.09 0 4 0 0 4 103 25.77 For more information on the MVP ranking system please visit www.thepca.co.uk. For more info on this release contact Dave Fulton on 07742106991, dfulton@thepca.co.uk The Formula The MVP is a cumulative points system that ewards players for every run scored, wicket taken and catch held – and, how well they do it. A player achieves bonus points based in certain criteria. An overview of the formula is set out below: Batting + Bowling + Fielding + Captaincy + Winning = Total MVP points Batting: The basis of the batting points take into account runs scored, the rate scored at, and the percentage of the team’s total. Batting bonus points are achieved for reaching a century, achieving a benchmark run-rate (varies per tournament, i.e. 1.5 runs per ball in the Twenty20), and scoring over 30% of a team’s runs Bowling: The basis for the bowling points take into account the number of wickets and economy rates. Bowlers achieve higher points for getting out higher order batsmen Bowling bonus points are achieved for achieving a benchmark economy rate (varies per tournament, i.e. fewer than 6 runs per over in Twenty20), taking 5 or more wickets in an innings, and bowling maidens. Fielding: Points are accumulated for catches, run outs – direct hits, run outs – assists, stumpings, with bonuses for 5 fielding dismissals in an innings. Captaincy: A captain of a winning side will receive one bonus point Winning teams: All members of a winning team receive one bonus point {{ak_sharing}}
