PCA PRESS RELEASE
Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year on becoming a household name.
England’s Zak Crawley has spoken to the PCA about breaking into the England side, his preparation methods, a unique summer of international and domestic cricket and more after scooping the Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year at Saturday’s NatWest Cricket Awards.
Crawley, still only 22, seized the opportunity presented by a first home international summer in making 417 runs at an average of 69.5 against West Indies and Pakistan, including a sublime innings of 267 against the latter.
‘Creepy’ continued his form on the domestic stage, with a second memorable knock of the summer at the Ageas Bowl seeing him blast a maiden T20 hundred against Hampshire.
It was enough for Crawley to see his peers vote him as the Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year, whilst he also earned a nomination for the NatWest PCA Men’s Player of the Year award, which was won by his international colleague Chris Woakes.
Watch the interview below to hear Crawley’s thoughts on a dream summer in both an England and a Kent shirt…
“It’s obviously great to be picked by your peers as having had a good season, and there are a lot of great names on the trophy already, so it means a lot to win the Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year award.
“I’ve definitely felt under a bit of pressure going into a few knocks this summer, and in each of those I managed to get a decent score, so hopefully that will stand me in good stead if I can keep doing that.
“When I scored the 267, I just prepared the same as I would for any other game. I wish I had a secret formula which I could keep using but unfortunately that’s not the case!
“I’m just so pleased to be playing for England and that’s the way I have to try and keep taking each and every game.”
Full list of NatWest Cricket Award winners:
- NatWest PCA Men’s Player of the Year – Chris Woakes (England / Warwickshire)
- NatWest PCA Women’s Player of the Year – Sarah Glenn (England Women)
- Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year – Zak Crawley (England / Kent)
- Test Player of the Summer – Stuart Broad
- Royal London ODI Player of the Summer – David Willey
- Vitality IT20 Player of the Summer – Dawid Malan
- Bob Willis Trophy Player of the Year – Craig Overton (Somerset)
- Vitality Blast Player of the Year – Will Jacks (Surrey)
- Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy Player of the Year – Georgia Adams (Southern Vipers)
- Greene King Team of the Year – Alastair Cook (Essex), Jake Libby (Worcestershire), Tom Lammonby (Somerset), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Will Jacks (Surrey), Chris Cooke (Glamorgan) [wk], Ryan Higgins (Gloucestershire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Simon Harmer (Essex) [c], Josh Davey (Somerset)
- ECB Special Award – Prof Nick Peirce (ECB)
- #Raisethebat Award – Jane Reeson (Over CC, Cambridgeshire)
- Connecting Communities Award – Jamie Saunders (Isleham CC, Cambridgeshire)
- Proactive Leadership Award – Miles Horner (Macclesfield CC, Cheshire)
About NatWest’s partnership with cricket:
NatWest has been involved in cricket for 39 years, supporting cricket communities from the ground up. Its sponsorship starts with community club cricket and extends to the pinnacle of the game, as the principal partner of England Cricket men’s, women’s, age-groups, disability and VI teams.
NatWest CricketForce is an annual event that has helped thousands of clubs to upgrade their facilities and is the United Kingdom’s largest annual sport-volunteering programme. This year, NatWest adapted its programme to create a digital, six-week programme throughout July and August to help grassroot clubs get up and running – including free online financial advice and toolkits as well as providing clubs with PPE equipment.
Over 3200 clubs signed up for NatWest CricketForce this year, beating 2019’s record of 2200. Just under 3000 PPE kits have been sent to clubs and over 1300 club members have engaged with NatWest’s Club cricket financial guide, a financial toolkit to help clubs navigate through the difficult financial environment post-lockdown.
NatWest is also the main charity partner of Chance to Shine, which uses cricket to engage with children and young adults, aiding education, social cohesion and wellbeing.
To find out more about NatWest’s involvement in cricket at all levels of the game, head to: natwest.com/cricket
