NATWEST PCA MEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR n Often considered England’s unsung hero, all-rounder Chris Woakes stepped into the limelight to succeed teammate Ben Stokes in picking up the Reg Hayter Cup. Woakes held off fellow nominees Zak Crawley, Simon Harmer and Craig Overton to win the coveted prize. Admitting the news came “as a bit of a shock,” Woakes was keen to praise those who pulled together to make cricket happen this summer.
NATWEST PCA WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR
NatWest Cricket Awards In what was an unusual year, there was still some great cricket played. Here are the men and women that stood out.
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With the annual NatWest PCA Awards unable to take place in 2020, the virtual NatWest Cricket Awards instead rounded off a year which saw all aspects of the cricket community co-operating to navigate the game through Covid-19. The event, which took place during Vitality Blast Finals Day on the weekend of 3-4 October, saw the NatWest PCA Awards combine with the ECB’s NatWest Outstanding Service to Cricket Awards (OSCAs) to honour all of those who made the summer of 2020 one to remember.
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As usual, the players themselves voted for the three main prizes, with the NatWest PCA Men’s Player of the Year, NatWest PCA Women’s Player of the Year and Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year being decided by the current playing membership based on performances over the truncated 2020 season. There were also three awards each for international and domestic men’s cricket, including the Greene King Team of the Year, as well as a domestic women’s award for the very first time.
n For the first time, the main PCA women’s award reflected performances over a period of 12 months, rather than the course of the preceding summer. Leg-spinner Sarah Glenn was voted her side’s outstanding performer, having only made her debut in December 2019. “I loved every moment of it”, Glenn said, “I’m just trying not to look too far ahead at the moment.”
VITALITY PCA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR n 22-year-old Zak Crawley beat Will Jacks and Tom Lammonby to the Vitality PCA Young Player of the Year award, stating that he “didn’t think he was capable” of scoring a Test double hundred, and that it was “very special” to join a list of previous winners including the likes of Michael Atherton, Ian Bell and Joe Root.
