Pick your June PCA Players of the Month

For the very first time, the June PCA Player of the Month contest will see a separate vote to produce both a men’s and women’s winner of the award.

With the women’s domestic season commencing at the end of May and taking place alongside the ongoing men’s domestic season, the PCA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Rankings, which were relaunched ahead of the 2021 season, have produced four nominees for each award based on MVP points scored throughout the month of June.

The winners will be decided via a public vote, with separate polls running until midday on Sunday for the men’s and women’s awards.

June was a jam-packed month of Vitality Blast action, with over half of the competition’s group stage taking place following a single round of LV= Insurance County Championship fixtures.

One of Marnus Labuschagne, Callum Parkinson, Colin Ackermann and Harry Brook will join Matt Critchley (April) and Simon Harmer (May) in having picked up a men’s PCA Player of the Month award this season.

Here is a brief rundown of each of the four contenders’ highlights this month:

Labuschagne has been a revelation since first joining Glamorgan in 2019, and June was no different as he scored the most MVP points of any domestic men’s player with 163.9.

The month started strongly for Labuschagne as he made scores of 44 and 63 not out during Glamorgan’s County Championship win over Lancashire, and he has since carried that form into the 20-over format. The leg-spinning all-rounder was named the MVP of the Match on three occasions out of his six appearances in the Blast, leading the Blast MVP from 14th June right up until the end of the month.

Leicestershire’s Parkinson was comfortably the most effective bowler in men’s domestic cricket in June according to the MVP Rankings. The slow left-armer scored 133.6 MVP points in that discipline alone, over 40 more than Danny Briggs who had the second most with 90.6.

A large chunk of those bowling points came during Parkinson’s MVP of the Match performance against Gloucestershire in the County Championship, when he took a second career ten-fer to finish with match figures of 10-108 and 60.3 MVP points. Parkinson has since taken that form into the Blast, regularly picking up wickets including returning figures of 4-35 against Yorkshire on 25 June.

Leicestershire skipper Ackermann has shown consistency to pick up 146.1 MVP points in June at an average of 13.3 points-per-game.

The all-rounder started the month excellently by scoring 57 and claiming six match wickets against Lancashire in the County Championship. He has since claimed nine Blast wickets and made four scores of over 30 to currently sit 12th in the Blast MVP on 110.7 points – just eight MVP points away from the current top five.

Youngster Brook picked up 132.8 MVP points throughout his 10 appearances across both formats in June.

The 22-year-old has been one of the stars of this season’s Vitality Blast campaign so far – only Glenn Phillips and Stevie Eskinazi have scored more batting MVP points in the competition than Brook’s 90.3. Amazingly, Brook has passed 22 with the bat in every match he has played for the Vikings in the Blast so far this season, including unbeaten scores of 48 (twice), 83, 45 and 28.

The women’s domestic season has so far seen four rounds of the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and one round of the brand-new T20 Charlotte Edwards Cup take place, with fixtures on 31st May counting towards the June PCA Player of the Month vote in this instance.

A mixture of youth and experience has seen Emma Lamb, Bryony Smith, Danni Wyatt and Jenny Gunn nominated, and one of the quartet will make history as the first ever winner of a women’s PCA Player of the Month award.

Here are their individual highlights from the season so far:

The prodigiously talented Lamb is the current leader of the women’s domestic Overall MVP, having scored more MVP points than any other player so far this season with a huge 110.5 at an average of 22.1 points-per-game.

Though she has contributed with both bat and ball, the 23-year-old has done most of her damage with bat in hand, scoring 68 points in that discipline – also the most of any player. The undoubted highlight of Lamb’s season so far was her recent performance against Northern Diamonds in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. Lamb scored 58 and took 4-13 to earn 47.9 MVP points, the highest individual total from a single fixture this season in either of the domestic women’s competitions.

Smith currently sits second behind Lamb in the Overall MVP having tallied up 82.8 MVP points, with almost an exactly even split between batting (34.7 MVP points) and bowling (37 points).

In five appearances across both competitions, Smith has been named MVP of the Match on one occasion, her 30 and 4-15 against Lightning in the Charlotte Edwards Cup translating to 25.6 MVP points for that fixture. The 23-year-old has been a model of consistency for South East Stars, having passed 20 in every innings with the bat across both competitions, and having taken at least one wicket in each of her five outings.

Seasoned pro Wyatt has demonstrated all of her experience during a fine run of form which has seen her accumulate 80.4 MVP points throughout the women’s domestic season so far.

Scores of 53, 64 not out, 61, 28 and 45 mean only Lamb has scored more batting MVP points than the Southern Vipers opener this year. Wyatt’s individual form has translated to team success for the Vipers, who have won three out of their four fixtures in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, as well as their opening fixture in the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

A genuine great of English cricket, Gunn remains at the top of her game as she has scored 78 MVP points in her first five appearances of this domestic season.

Like Smith, Gunn’s MVP points are almost evenly split between batting (31.2) and bowling (35.8) and she has also contributed six points in the field. The all-rounder has been named the MVP of the Match on two occasions, including for her starring role in Northern Diamonds’ dramatic last over win against South East Stars, when she took 2-45 and scored 50 to earn 24.3 MVP points.

Find out more about the PCA MVP Rankings and view the men’s and women’s tables.