PCA Player of the Year Award Investec Ashes and LV= County Championship winner Jonny Bairstow is joined by Matt Coles, Ashwell Prince and Chris Rushworth in being nominated for this year’s PCA Player of the Year Award. The flagship award, which is voted for by current county cricketers, will be presented at the annual PCA Awards which will be held at Tobacco Dock in London on Tuesday September 29. Yorkshire’s Bairstow has been shortlisted by his peers after forcing his way back into the England side after a prolific season with the bat in all forms of the game. Coles’ return to Kent hasn’t gone unnoticed either with 100 wickets in all competitions and a blistering century in the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final against Surrey. Lancashire retiree Prince has a chance of lifting the Reg Hayter Cup for the first time after ending the season as the highest run scorer in the Championship while playing a major role in securing his county’s first NatWest T20 Blast title. Durham seamer Rushworth, who completes the shortlist, ended the campaign as the leading wicket taker in the Championship with his tally of 83 making it an all-time record for the north-east county. While the Reg Hayter Cup is the headline award, four rising stars will also be hoping to lift some silverware on the biggest awards ceremony in English cricket. The John Arlott Cup will also be presented to the PCA Young Player of the Year with Somerset all-rounder Craig Overton among the shortlisted candidates. Overton is competing with Lancashire wicketkeeper Alex Davies, Surrey seamer Tom Curran and Sussex all-rounder Ollie Robinson. There are three nominees in the Waitrose Women’s Player of the Summer category, voted for by the England Women’s performance squad who earmarked Anya Shrubsole, Natalie Sciver and Katherine Brunt as contenders. The PCA Awards evening is an event run by the PCA in association with the England and Wales Cricket Board. The Awards reflect on and honour the domestic season with all monies raised on the night going to the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust. The Professional Cricketers’ Trust, sponsored by Royal London, is part of the PCA’s commitment to helping current and former players and their dependants in times of hardship and upheaval, or to readjust to the world beyond the game. NOMINEES FOR PCA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: {{playeryear}} Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire): Bairstow helped England regain the Ashes by playing in the last three Tests of the series after forcing his way back into the international arena thanks to a sublime season for Yorkshire. The wicketkeeper-batsman played a crucial role in helping the White Rose retain their LV= County Championship crown by scoring over 1,000 first-class runs and averaged almost 100 during a productive season which included a career-best 219 not out against Durham at Chester-le-Street. The majority of those runs were made in a Championship record seventh wicket stand of 366 with Tim Bresnan which was also the third highest for that wicket in the history of first-class cricket. Arguably his finest individual moment came in the deciding Royal London ODI against New Zealand where he hit 83 off just 60 balls to help England to a 3-2 series victory. Matt Coles (Kent): One of the most destructive all-rounders on the county circuit, Coles surpassed all expectations upon his return to Kent after two seasons with Hampshire. The 25 year-old took 67 LV= County Championship wickets including ten in the match in the victory over Leicestershire at Grace Road which helped him end the summer as the third highest wicket taker in Division Two. The Maidstone born paceman contributed useful runs in the lower order throughout the campaign too, highlighted by an incredible maiden List A century in the Royal London One-Day Cup. He almost propelled Kent into a semi-final berth after smashing 100 off just 73 balls at the Kia Oval. Finishing with 424 runs and 100 wickets in all competitions, Coles has had a year to remember. Ashwell Prince (Lancashire): Having played 66 Tests for South Africa, Prince had his swansong at Lancashire in 2015 and he had something of a fairy-tale finish after playing a major part in regaining their LV= County Championship Division One status and lifting the NatWest T20 Blast trophy. The left-hander ended the season as the highest run maker in the Championship with 1,427 to his name including a career-best 261 made against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay where he shared a third wicket stand of 501, the highest for any Lancashire wicket, with Alviro Petersen. Prince contributed a further 236 runs in the Royal London One-Day Cup and 398 in the T20 Blast, including a well-made 43 in the final against Northants as the 38-year-old ended his illustrious career on a high. Chris Rushworth (Durham): The Durham seamer followed up a productive 2014 with an even more successful season this year in which he finished as the leading wicket-taker in the LV= County Championship with 83 at an average of 20.61. Those figures include a best match analysis of 9-78, no less than seven five-wicket hauls and a remarkable hat-trick against Hampshire spread over three overs and two innings. His 83-wicket haul surpassed Ottis Gibson’s Durham record of 80-wickets in a season set in 2007 and led to speculation over a possible Ashes call-up due to an injury to James Anderson. Add nine scalps in the Royal London One-Day Cup and eight in the NatWest T20 Blast, Rushworth has collected 100 wickets in an exceptional summer. NOMINEES FOR PCA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: {{youngplayer}} Tom Curran (Surrey): Curran, the son of former Zimbabwe, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire all-rounder Kevin Curran, has made impressive strides this season taking more than 70 LV= County Championship wickets for the first time including two seven wicket hauls at The Kia Oval.i Striking up a lethal partnership with his younger brother Sam, the pair shared all 10 wickets in the first innings against Northamptonshire this week. Tom also made his maiden first-class 50 against Leicestershire at Grace Road and was a key member of the Surrey squad that won promotion in the Championship and reached the final of the Royal London One Day Cup. Alex Davies (Lancashire): The 21-year-old from Darwen has seamlessly filled the shoes of England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler in 2015. Davies claimed 50 dismissals behind the stumps in helping Lancashire win promotion in the LV= County Championship and scored 730 runs at an average above 40 which including a career-best 99 against Kent at Emirates Old Trafford in April. Davies also played a key role in helping Lancashire to win the NatWest T20 Blast for the first time, underlined by a Man of the Match performance in the final. Playing as a specialist batsman, he scored a competition-best 47 from 36 balls to set-up victory against Northamptonshire at Edgbaston. Craig Overton (Somerset): Overton, the twin brother of Jamie, who plays alongside him at Somerset, followed up a productive season in 2014 by stepping up a gear this summer. Topping 40 first-class wickets at an average below 22, he also contributed 320 runs including three half centuries. The Devonian was also the county’s leading wicket taker in the Royal London One-Day Cup, taking 12 wickets to go with his 100 runs as he consolidated his place. His undoubted talent earned a call from the England selectors as Overton joined up with the ODI squad to take on New Zealand in June. He will travel to South Africa and Dubai this winter as a member of the England Performance Programme’s fast bowling squad. Ollie Robinson (Sussex): Robinson’s move to Sussex resurrected his career in spectacular fashion after he was released by Yorkshire late in the 2014 season. Without a county until the eve of the season, he scored a century batting at number nine in his maiden first-class innings against Durham at Chester-le-Street in April and then took four wickets in Durham’s first innings. He followed up with a maiden five wicket haul in the home win over Warwickshire and then consolidated his place in the Sussex side in all formats. The 21-year-old ended the summer with 282 runs in the LV= County Championship and 63 wickets across all three formats in a whirlwind year for the promising all-rounder. WAITROSE WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE SUMMER: {{womensplayer}} Katherine Brunt Brunt has transformed herself into a genuine all-round cricketer this summer, leading the bowling attack with her customary sharp pace and batting as high as five during the Women’s Ashes series, at an average of over 30. Her defiant 39 in the first innings of the Kia Women’s Test match alongside bowling 38 overs in the match epitomised the passion and pride she plays for England with. Anya Shrubsole Brunt’s opening bowling partner Shrubsole was exceptional for England during the Women’s Ashes NatWest IT20s, claiming seven wickets for just 35 runs from the 12 overs she bowled across the three matches – including 4-11 in the final match in Cardiff. The Somerset seamer also blew away Australia on the first day of the Kia Women’s Test, taking four wickets in 27 balls to help to reduce the tourists to 87-4 having been 66 Natalie Sciver Sciver’s Women’s Ashes series was bookended with player of the match performances, after the Surrey all-rounder hit a match-winning 66 in the first Royal London ODI in Taunton, and took career-best figures of 4-15 alongside scoring 47 in the final NatWest IT20 of the series. Such performances endorse her growing reputation as one of the most talented all-rounders in international women’s cricket. The full list of PCA Awards to be presented on September 29: Harold Goldblatt Award for the PCA Umpire of the Year PCA England Masters MVP ECB Special Award PCA Special Merit Award sponsored by Lycamobile NatWest T20 Blast Player of the Year Award Royal London One Day Cup Player of the Year Award Sky Sports Sixes Award PCA Team of the Year Investec Test Player of the Summer John Arlott Cup for the PCA Young Player of the Year Reg Hayter Cup for the PCA Player of the Year Overall PCA County MVP {{ak_sharing}}
