Samit Patel, Natalie Sciver honoured at PCA awards

Apart from Samit and Natalie, England’s James Anderson bagged Best Test Player award, while Test skipper Joe Root bagged Best ODI Player award.

It was a star-studded night at the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s (PCA) awards ceremony in England last evening. Samit Patel and Natalie Sciver took top spot in respective categories for best male and female ‘Player of the year’ award. Patel edged past Kumar Sangakkara, who has a phenomenal run for Surrey. Essex’s Jamie Porter was also awarded for his bowling performance and named Young Player of the Year and also County Championship Player of the Year.

Patel scored 539 runs at 67.37, including two hundred and three half-centuries for Nottinghamshire in one-day competition.

Leading this side to their maiden- T20 Championship run, Patel scored more than 400 runs and also bagged 16 wickets. He ended up scoring 906 runs, and picking 19 wickets in Division Two County Championship as Nottinghamshire finished second.

“It’s a great honour to be voted by your peers. It’s a great feeling and it demonstrates how well we have done as a team and individually this season. I’m a little bit surprised actually. To be up there with a world-class player like Sanga, with the amount of runs that he scored in a short amount of time, is a privilege in itself. I’ve never been up there for Players’ Player before, so to win it is unreal really. I’m really happy and chuffed to bits,” Patel was quoted by Cricbuzz.

Natalie, who bagged Women’s Player of the year award was monumental in England’s ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 success. She scored 369 runs at 46.12, while taking 7 wickets.

“Nothing can take away from that day at Lord’s and just being there with the whole team and the girls who didn’t quite make the 15 so we were there as a squad. This caps off a brilliant year for us and hopefully we can produce a few more brilliant years. To be voted by my peers is a really nice feeling. There are a few other players who could have been nominated as well. It was a performance by the full 15 in the squad, so I am very lucky, “Natalie said.

Apart from Samit and Natalie, England’s James Anderson bagged Best Test Player award, while Test skipper Joe Root bagged Best ODI Player award.

Award winners

Reg Hayter Cup for the NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year – Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire)

John Arlott Cup for the NatWest PCA Young Player of the Year – Jamie Porter (Essex)

NatWest Women’s Player of the Summer – Natalie Sciver

Investec Test Player of the Summer – James Anderson

Royal London One Day International Player of the Summer – Joe Root

Specsavers County Championship Player of the Year – Jamie Porter (Essex)

NatWest T20 Blast Player of the Year – Wayne Madsen (Derbyshire)

Royal London One-Day Cup Player of the Year – Colin Ingram (Glamorgan)

Greene King PCA England Masters Player of the Year – Owais Shah

PCA Lifetime Achievement Award – Fred Rumsey

ECB Special Award – Heather Knight and Mark Robinson

Harold Goldblatt Award for the PCA Umpire of the Year – Michael Gough